GIFT  OF 

UTHERFOW)  BACON 
ORIAL  LJBRAKY 


NEW    EVERY    MORNING" 


A    YEAR   BOOK  FOR    GIRLS 


EDITED    BY 

ANNIE  HA  RYDER 


BOSTON 
D.   LOTHROP   AND   COMPANY 

FRANKLIN   AND   HAWLEY    STREETS 


Copyright,  1886, 

by 
D.   LOTHROP  &   COMPANY. 


INTRODUCTION. 


WITHIN  the  past  few  years  numerous 
books  have  been  written  providing  spe- 
cial spiritual  thought  for  each  day's  wants. 
These  have  lifted  the  souls  of  thousands  and 
encouraged  them  to  worthier  efforts  after  a 
heavenly  nature ;  people  have  come  to  depend 
upon  these  works  as  on  scriptural  readings ;  they 
have  opened  the  day  with  a  thought  from  them, 
or  hallowed  its  close  with  a  selected  portion. 
The  books  have  been  indeed  Daily  Strength  for 
Daily  Needs,  Helps  by  the  Way,  and  Gold  Dust 
from  the  mines  of  holiness.  And  there  have 
been  calendars,  dropping  for  each  day  the  word 
of  inspiration  or  of  wisdom,  giving  sweet  coun- 
sel from  the  prose  and  poetry  of  great  authors. 
With  what  eagerness  do  we  look  for  what  the 
new  day  will  say  to  us  when  we  tear  the  old  leaf 
away  from  the  month  ! 

Realizing  how  much  good   these  works   are 


287548 


11  INTRODUCTION. 

doing,  and  knowing  how  valuable  portions  of 
them  are  to  the  young,  I  have  thought  a  little 
volume  entirely  devoted  to  girls  might  be  ac- 
ceptable. Out  of  a  sincere  love  for  the  girls 
and  an  earnest  desire  to  help  them  cheerfully 
along  the  way  of  life,  I  have  striven  to  bring 
together  such  selections  as  seemed  most  practi- 
cal. 

Thoughts  have  been  chosen  which  offer  sug- 
gestions for  daily  conduct,  and  which  furnish 
hints  about  such  common  subjects  as  talking, 
reading,  studying,  exercising,  caring  for  health, 
working,  dressing,  and  other  necessary  acts. 
Duty,  particularly  in  its  everyday  phases,  is  en- 
couraged on  many  a  page,  while  other  qualities 
which  tend  to  the  growth  of  character  —  cheer- 
fulness, perseverance,  honesty,  courtesy,  courage 
and  aspiration,  have  been  leading  motives  in 
compiling  the  work. 

Here  and  there  a  bit  of  helpful  experience 
from  some  well-known  woman's  life  is  held  up 
to  encourage  girls  and  to  increase  their  rever- 
ence for  noble  womanhood. 

In  choosing  from  the  many  helps  to  girls, 
Nature  has  been  deemed  most  worthy  of  consid- 


INTRODUCTION.  Ill 

eration  among  the  days  of  the  year.  If  you  love 
her,  girls,  and  daily  note  some  added  beauty  in 
her  charms,  you  will  grow  stronger  not  only  in 
body  and  in  mind,  but  in  spirit  too.  Your  love 
for  what  is  pure  and  for  what  is  beautiful,  how- 
ever common,  will  increase,  and  your  stock  of 
happiness  will  be  enlarged  by  riches  which  no 
condition  in  life  can  impoverish. 

For  every  seventh  day  a  quotation  is  given 
bearing  directly  on  spiritual  things,  though  it 
has  been  the  sincere  wish  of  the  compiler  to 
make  such  selections  for  each  day  as  shall  lead 
to  the  fullest  development  of  the  soul. 

To  those  large-hearted  men  and  women  who 
have  written  so  helpfully  for  us,  and  who  allow 
me  to  bring  together  in  this  year-book  their 
thoughts,  please  give  your  thanks,  while  I  in  full 
sincerity  add  mine.  Grow  familiar  with  the 
works  these  authors  have  written  in  your  behalf, 
and  then  be  glad  again  that  the  world  has  so 
many  good  and  wise  people  who  love  just  you 
yourselves. 

If  I  have  too  frequently  used  some  thought  of 
my  own,  it  has  not  been  because  I  believed  it 
worthy  of  a  place  among  the  thoughts  of  cele- 


iv  INTRODUCTION. 

brated  authors,  but  because  I  wanted  to  give 
you,  girls,  a  certain  idea,  and  had  not  the  oppor- 
tunity to  search  for  a  better  expression  of  it 
among  well-known  writers. 

While  for  every  day  some  passage  has  been 
taken  to  give  encouragement  or  hints  towards 
earnest  living,  the  general  idea  which  I  hope 
pervades  the  little  work,  is  expressed  in  the  title, 
"  New  Every  Morning,"  and  more  fully  given  in 
the  opening  poem.  With  the  dawn  of  each  day 
we  are  born  anew  into  opportunities  for  fresh 
efforts.  No  matter  about  yesterday's  shortcom- 
ings, "  To-day  is  ours."  Make  of  it  a  day  holy 
with  duty  done,  and  strong  with  cheerful  striv- 
ings ;  a  day  full  of  hope  for  the  future. 

My  heartiest  thanks  are  due  to  those  authors 
who  have  so  generously  allowed  me  the  use  of 
their  works,  and  to  the  publishers,  Messrs. 
Houghton,  Miffim  and  Co.,  and  Messrs.  Roberts 
Brothers,  whose  permission  to  select  passages 
from  their  publications  has  been  of  great  value. 

ANNIE  H.  RYDER. 

August,  1886. 


JANUARY. 


NEW  EVERY  MORNING. 

Every  day  is  a  fresh  beginning, 

Every  morn  is  the  world  made  new. 
You  who  are  weary  of  sorrow  and  sinning, 

Here  is  a  beautiful  hope  for  you : 

A  hope  for  me  and  a  hope  for  you. 

All  the  past  things  are  past  and  over, 
The  tasks  are  done  and  the  tears  are  shed, 

Yesterday's  errors  let  yesterday  cover ; 

Yesterday's  wounds,  which  smarted  and  bled, 
Are  healed  with  the  healing  which  night  has  shed. 

Yesterday  now  is  a  part  of  forever  : 
Bound  up  in  a  sheaf,  which  God  holds  tight, 

With  glad  days,  and  sad  days,  and  bad  days  which  never 
Shall  visit  us  more  with  their  bloom  and  their  blight, 
Their  fullness  of  sunshine  or  sorrowful  night. 

Let  them  go,  since  we  cannot  relieve  them, 

Cannot  undo  and  cannot  atone  ; 
God  in  his  mercy  receive,  forgive  them  ! 

Only  the  new  days  are  our  own. 

To-day  is  ours,  and  to-day  alone. 

SUSAN  COOLIDGE. 

IX 


12  JANUARY. 

2.  She  had  reached  that  point  where  the  girl  suddenly 
blooms  into  a  woman,  asking  something  more  substantial 
than  pleasure  to  satisfy  the  new  aspirations  that  are  born  ; 
a  time  as  precious  and  important  to  the  after  life,  as  the 
hour  when  the  apple-blossoms  fall,  and  the  young  fruit 
waits  for  the  elements  to  ripen  or  destroy  the  harvest. 

LOUISA  M.  ALCOTT. 

There  are  many  boys  and  girls,  full  of  high  hopes,  lovely 
possibilities,  and  earnest  plans,  pausing  a  moment  before 
they  push  their  little  boats  from  the  safe  shore.  Let  those 
who  launch  them  see  to  it  that  they  have  good  health  to 
man  the  oars,  good  education  for  ballast,  and  good  princi- 
ples as  pilots  to  guide  them  as  they  voyage  down  an  ever- 
widening  river  to  the  sea. 

LOUISA  M.  ALCOTT. 


3.  There  are  so  many  kinds  of  beauty  after  which  one 
may  strive,  that  we  are  bewildered  by  the  bare  attempt  to 
remember  them.  There  is  beauty  of  manner,  of  utterance, 
of  achievement,  of  reputation,  of  character,  any  one  of  these 
outweighs  beauty  of  person,  even  in  the  scales  of  society, 
to  say  nothing  of  celestial  values.  Cultivate  most  of  the 
kind  that  lasts  the  longest.  The  beautiful  face  with  noth- 
ing back  of  it  lacks  the  "  staying  qualities  "  that  are  nec- 
essary to  those  who  would  be  winners  in  the  race  of  life. 
It  is  not  the  first  mile  post,  but  the  last  that  tells  the  story  ; 
not  the  outward  bound  steed,  but  the  one  on  the  "  home 
stretch  "  that  we  note  as  victor. 

FRANCES  E.  WILLARD. 


JANUARY.  13 

4.  Girls,  have  your  aspirations,  and  when  you  have 
outgrown  one,  or  exhausted  all  there  is  good  and  pure  in 
it,  take  hold  of  another  and  grow  as  large  as  you  can  in  it. 
If  circumstances  baffle,  why  baffle  circumstances  ;  only  be 
careful  to  do  all  these  things  cheerfully.     That  is  the  nat- 
ural way  to  grow.     The  trees  get  along  so,  you  know. 
They  spread  out  into  great  space,  give  as  much  foliage  and 
fruit  as  they  can,  and  then  when  other  trees  crowd  around 
too  closely,  they  shoot  up  and  out  into  the  limitless  air  and 
sunshine.     All  the  while  the  wind  goes  sounding  through 
them  making  life  musical  and  bright.  A.  H.  R. 

The  true  way  to  begin  life  is  not  to  look  off  upon  it  to 
see  what  it  offers,  but  to  take  a  good  look  at  self.  Find 
out  what  you  are,  how  you  are  made  up,  your  capacities 
and  lacks,  and  then  determine  to  get  the  most  out  of  your- 
self possible. 

THEODORE  T.  MUNGER. 

5.  I  am  afraid  that  the  majority  of  girls  act  very  ridicu- 
lously with  regard  to  their  health.     I  should  be  very  sorry 
to  make  them  nervous  and  fanciful,  and  lead  them  to  cod- 
dle themselves  ;  I  only  want  them  to  act  reasonably.     If 
they  get  wet  through  and  do  not  change  their  clothes,  if 
they  go  from  a  heated  atmosphere  to  a  cold  one  without 
additional  clothing,  if  they  sit  dreaming  over  the  fire,  and 
do  not  take  regular  exercise,  or  if  they  make  exercise  im- 
possible, by  wearing  tight  stays,  or  hobbling  about  on 
high-heeled  boots,  they  can  no  more  expect  to  be  strong 
than  they  can  expect  to  put  their  hands  into  the  fire  and 
draw  them  out  smooth  and  sound. 

PHILLIS  BROWNE. 


14  JANUARY. 

6.  Maiden,  when  such  a  soul  as  thine  is  born, 
The  morning  stars  their  ancient  music  make 
And,  joyful,  once  again  their  song  awake, 
Long  silent  now  with  melancholy  scorn  ; 
And  thou,  not  mindless  of  so  blest  a  morn, 
By  no  least  deed  its  harmony  shalt  break, 

But  shalt  to  that  high  chime  thy  footsteps  take, 
Through  life's  most  darksome  passes  unforlorn  ; 
Therefore  from  thy  pure  faith  thou  shalt  not  fall, 
Therefore  shalt  thou  be  ever  fair  and  free, 
And  in  thine  every  motion  musical 
As  summer  air,  majestic  as  the  sea, 
A  mystery  to  those  who  creep  and  crawl 
Through  Time,  and  part  it  from  Eternity. 

LOWELL. 

7.  To  live  well,  you  must  be  in  the  open  air  every  day. 
This  rule  is  well  nigh  absolute.     Women  offend  against 
it  terribly  in  America,  and  women  are  very  apt  to  break 
down.     Rain  or  shine,  mud  or  dust,  go  out  of  your  house 
and  see  what  God  is  doing  outside.     I  do  not  count  that 
an  irreverent  phrase,  which  says  one  feels  nearer  God  un- 
der the  open  sky,  than  he  is  apt  to  do  when  shut  up  in  a 
room.     I  know  a  very  wise  man  who  used  to  say  :  "  Peo- 
ple speak  of  going  out,  when  they  should  speak  of  going 
in."     He  meant  that  you  do  plunge  into  the  air,  as  when 
you  bathe  at  the  seaside  you  go  into  the  water.     Be  quite 
sure  of  your  air  bath.     I  will  not  dictate  the  time,  but,  on 
an  average,  an  hour  is  not  too  long.     You  will  fare  all  the 
better,  will  eat  the  better,  digest  the  better,  and  sleep  the 
better,  if  instead  of  an  hour  it  is  two  hours  or  more. 

EDWARD  EVERETT  HALE. 


JANUARY.  15 

8.  Elizabeth  Fry,  woman-like,  aimed  at  the  improve- 
ment of  her  own  sex  ;  but  the  reform  she  inaugurated  did 
not  stop  there ;  like  a  circle  caused  by  the  descent  of  a 
pebble  into  a  lake,  it  widened  and  extended  until  she  and 
her  work  became  household  words  among  all  classes  of 
society,  and  in  all  civilized  countries.     .     .     Probably  it  is 
not  too  much  to  say  that  no  laborer  in  the  cause  of  prison 
reform   ever    won  a  larger  share  of  success.     Certainly 
none  ever  received  a  larger  meed  of  reverential  love.     . 
To  those  who  had  sinned  against,  and  had  been  forgiven 
by  her,   Mrs.  Fry's  memory  was   something  almost  too 
holy  for  earth.      No  saint  of  the  Catholic  Church  ever 
received  truer  reverence,  or  performed  such  miracles  of 
moral  healing.  MRS.  E.  R.  PITMAN. 

9.  I  told  my  Sunday  class  to-day  about  putting  on  "  the 
whole  armor  of  God."     We  talked  about  the  places  that 
don't  get  covered  by  it.     You  know  the  Achilles  story  and 
the  legend  about  Siegfried  ?  how  Achilles'  heel  didn't  get 
dipped  into  the  fluid  which  made  his  body  invulnerable, 
and  how  a  leaf  rested  between  Siegfried's  shoulders  so 
that  one  tiny  spot  was  not  bathed  in  the  liquid  which  pro- 
tected the  rest  of  him  ?     You  remember  one  was  killed  by 
a  wound  in  the  heel,  and  the  other  by  an  arrow  which 
struck  between  his  shoulders.    Now,  girls,  we  haven't  been 
dipped  all  over  in  the  magic  fluid  of  goodness.     Lots  and 
lots  of  places  are  bare.     We  don't  help  being  wicked  in 
hundreds  of  ways.     It's  easy  not  to  steal  and  not  to  lie, 
but  it  is  not  easy  to  keep  from  losing  patience,  and  get- 
ting envious,  and  wanting  to  have  our  own  way.    We  have 
just  the  least  armor  on.  A.  H.  R. 


1 6  JANUARY. 

10.  Be  more  economical  in   the  use    of  your  mother 
tougue.     Apply  your  terms  of  praise  with  precision  ;  use 
epithets  with  some  degree  of  judgment  and  fitness.     Do 
not  waste  your  best  and  highest  words  upon  inferior  ob- 
jects, and  find  that  when  you  have  met  with  something 
which  really  is  superlatively  great  and  good,  the  terms  by 
which  you  would  distinguish  it  have  all  been  thrown  away 
upon  inferior  things  —  that  you  are  bankrupt  in  expression. 
If  a  thing  is  simply  good,  say  so ;  if  pretty,  say  so ;  if  very 
pretty,  say  so  ;  if  fine,  say  so  ;  if  very  fine,  say  so  ;  if  grand, 
say    so ;    if  sublime,  say  so ;   if   magnificent,   say  so ;  if 
splendid,  say  so.     These  words  all  have  different  mean- 
ings, and  you  may  say  them  all  of  as  many  different  ob- 
jects, and  not  use  the  word  "  perfect "  once.     That  is  a 
very  large  word.  TIMOTHY  TITCOMB. 

11.  Not  a  little  sunshine  of  our  Northern  winters  is 
surely  wrapped  up  in  the  apple.     How  pleasing  to  the 
touch.      I    love  to   stroke  its  polished  rondure  with  my 
hand,  to  carry  it  in  my  pocket  on  my  tramp  over  the  win- 
ter hills,  or  through  the  early  spring  woods.    You  are  com- 
pany, you  red-cheeked  spitz,  or  you  salmon-fleshed  green- 
ing!    I  toy  with  you  ;  press  your  face  to  mine,  toss  you  in 
the  air,  roll  you  on  the  ground,  see  you  shine  out  where 
you  lie  amid  the  moss  and  dry  leaves  and  sticks.   You  are 
so  alive !     You  glow  like  a  ruddy  flower.     You  look  so 
animated  I  almost  expect  to  see  you  move !     I  postpone 
the  eating  of  you,  you  are  so  beautiful !     How  compact  • 
how  exquisitely  tinted !    Stained  by  the  sun  and  varnished 
against  the  rains. 

JOHN  BURROUGHS. 


JANUARY.  1 7 

12.  Some  of  the  girls  said,  sometimes,  that   "  Leslie 
Goldthwaite  liked  to  be  odd ;  she  took  pains  to  be."   This 
was  not  true  ;  she  began  with  the  prevailing  fashion  —  the 
fundamental  idea  of  it  — always,  when    she  had  a   new 
thing;  but  she  modified    and  curtailed,  —  something  was 
sure  to  stop  her  somewhere  ;  and  the  trouble  with  the  new 
fashions  is  that  they  never  stop.     ...     She  had  other 
work  to  do,  and  she  must  choose  the  finishing  that  would 
take  the  shortest  time ;  or  satin  folds  would  cost  six  dol- 
lars more,  and  she  wanted  the  money  to  use  differently ; 
the  dress  was  never  the  first  and  the  must  be. 

MRS.  A.  D.  T.  WHITNEY. 

She  didn't  seem  to  sense  anything  only  ruffles  and  such 
like.  Her  mind  seemed  to  be  narrowed  down  and  puck- 
ered up,  just  like  trimmin'.  MARIETTA  HOLLEY. 

13.  For  each  of  us  there  waits  an  Orleans.     Some  time 
that  crisis-battle  must  be  fought  which  gives  us  final  vic- 
tory or  ultimate  defeat.    In  that  long  siege  which  pre- 
cedes that  crisis-battle  we  need  the  faith  of  Joan,  that  faith 
which  ranges  the  soul  on  the    side    of   the    conquering 
powers,  and  enlists  it  in  a  service  which  is  sure  to  win. 
And  we  need  to  see  our  visions,  to  hear  our  voices,  as  did 
Joan  hers ;  those  visions  which  open  to  us  from  the  sum- 
mits of  our  holiest  resolve,  our  highest  endeavor,  our  most 
painful  abnegation;  those  voices  which  lay  on  us  most 
strenuous  commands  and  whisper  to  us,  in  secret  cham- 
bers of  our  beleaguered  souls,  words  of  conviction,  of 
courage,  and  of  cheer.    God  grant  that  we  be  not  unrespon- 
sive to  that  angel  voice,  that  we  be  not  disobedient  unto 
the  heavenly  vision  !  ROSE  E.  CLEVELAND. 


l8  JANUARY. 

14.  In  character,  in  manners,  in  style,  in  all  things,  the 
supreme  excellence  is  simplicity. 

LONGFELLOW. 

The  old  fashion  of  simplicity  is  the  best  for  all  of  us. 

LOUISA  M.  ALCOTT. 

Charles  Lamb  was  just  in  his  admiration  of  the  shin- 
ing Quakeresses  who  came  up  to  their  Whitsun-confer- 
ences  clad  in  white  simplicity,  a  quality  in  dress,  as  in  be- 
havior, most  becoming.  Some  of  the  prettiest  faces  we  see 
may  be  confined  by  the  linen  bands  of  the  Sisters  of  Mercy 
or  by  plain  Quaker  bonnets,  still  we  are  to  remember  that  it 
is  the  soul  always  and  not  the  simple  attire  which  makes 
faces  sweet,  and  lives  beautiful.  "  Handsome  is  that 
handsome  does."  A.  H.  R. 

15.  If  there  were  only  a  sure  and  certain  receipt  for 
making  a  cheery  person,  how  glad  we  would  all  be  to  try 
it!     How  thankful  we  would  all  be  to  do  good  like  sun- 
shine !     To  cheer  everybody  up  and  help  everybody  along ! 
To  have  everybody's  face  brighten  the  minute  we  come  in 
sight !     Why,  it  seems  to  me  there  cannot  be  in  this  life 
any  pleasure  half  so  great  as  this  would  be.     If  we  looked 
at  life  only  from  a  selfish  point  of  view,  it  would  be  worth 
while  to  be  a  cheery  person  merely  because  it  would  be 
such  a  satisfaction  to  have  everybody  be  glad  to  live  with 
us,  to  see  us,  even  to  meet  us  on  the  street. 

"  I  jist  like  to  let  her  in  at  the  door,"  said  an  Irish  ser- 
vant one  day,  of  a  woman  I  know  whose  face  was  always 
cheery  and  bright ; "  the  face  of  her  does  one  good,  shure." 

HELEN  HUNT  JACKSON. 


JANUARY.  19 

16.  "  But  I  do  sin, "  you  say,  "  again  and  again,  and 
that  is  what  makes  me  fearful.     I  try  to  do  better,  but 
I  fall  and  I  fail  all  day  long.     I  try  not  to  be  covetous 
and  worldly,  but  poverty  tempts  me,  and  I  fall ;    I  try 
to    keep  my   temper,   but   people    upset  me,  and  I    say 
things  of  which  I  am  bitterly  ashamed  the  next  minute. 
Can  God  love  such  a  one  as  me  ?  "     My  answer  is,  If  God 
loved  the  whole  world  when  it  was  dead  in  trespasses  and 
sins,  and  not  trying  to  be  better,  much  more  will  he  love 
you  who  are  not  dead  in  trespasses  and  sins,  and  are  trying 
to  be  better.    If  he  were  not  still  helping  you;  if  his  Spirit 
were  not  with  you,  you  would  care  no  more  to  become  bet- 
ter than  a  dog  or  an  ox  cares.     And  if  you  fall — why, 
arise  again.     Get  up,  and  go  on.     You  may  be  sorely 
bruised,  and  soiled  with  your  fall,  but  is  that  any  reason 
for  lying  still,  and  giving  up  the  struggle  cowardly  ?     In 
the  name  of  Jesus  Christ,  arise  and  walk. 

CHAS.  KINGSLEY. 

17.  I  like  so  much  the  legend  of  St.  Elizabeth,  of  Hun- 
gary, who  did  all  for  charity's  sake  —  that  is,  for  love's  sweet 
sake. —  YOU  know  that  the  heavy  load  of  bread  which  she 
was  carrying,  trying  to  conceal  it  from  her  husband's  eye, 
all  turned  to  roses,  red  and  white,  when  he  commanded 
her  to  open  the  pack  which  she  was  bringing  to  the  poor. 
Gentle  deeds  of  charity  always  turn  fragrant  and  beautiful 
in  our  hands,  even  when  custom,  or  authority,  or  fashion, 
or  prudence  rebukes  us  for  bestowing  gifts.     You  give  a 

loaf  and  you  let  an  angel  into  your  heart. 

A.  H.  R. 


2O  JANUARY. 

1 8.  In  our  comfortable  homes,  we  forget   how  near 
these  wretched  cellars  and  attics  are  to  the  reformatories 
and  prison  cells.     They  are  the  next  door,  and  it  depends 
often  upon  our  personal  influence  over  the  poor  to  keep 
that  door  shut.     When  we  are  told  that  certain  evils  can- 
not be  helped,  that  we  may  as  well  let  them  alone,  we 
must   remember  that   experience    has  taught  differently. 
Evils  can  be  helped,  and  to  let  things  alone  is  to  lend  our- 
selves to  wrong.      It  is  impossible  to  overestimate   the 
value  of  friendly  communication  with  the  poor  and  unfor- 
tunate.    When  I  see  what  is  accomplished  sometimes  by 
what  in  contrast  may  be  called  so  small  an  expenditure, 
it  seems  impossible  not  to  spread  the  good  news,  and  thus 
bring  in  a  very  much  larger  number  of  workers,  when  the 
harvest  is  so    abundant.      "  From    wealth,  little  can  be 
hoped  ;  from  intercourse,  everything." 

How  to  Help  the  Poor.— MRS.  JAMES  T.  FIELDS. 

19.  Have   something  to  do,  whether  you  are  rich  or 
poor,  have  some  useful  employment.     And  let  it  be  some 
fixed  task  which  you  cannot  shirk  at  a  moment's  notice. 
Carlyle  compares  the  work  of  this  world  to  an  immense 
hand-barrow  with  innumerable  handles,  of  which  there  is 
one  for  every  human  being.     But  there  are  some  people, 
he  says,  so  lazy,  that  they  not  only  let  go  their  handle, 
but  jump  upon  the  barrow  and  increase  the  weight.    Don't 
let  go  your  handle.     There  is  abundance  of  work  in  this 
busy  world  for  every  one  who  has  a  human  heart. 

DAVID  PRYDE. 


JANUARY.  2 1 

20.  In  the  morning,  when  thou  risest  unwilingly,  let 
this  thought  be  present :  "  I  am  rising  to  the  work  of  a 
human  being.     Why  then  am  I  dissatisfied  if  I  am  going 
to  do  the  things  for  which  I  exist,  and  for  which  I  was 
brought  into  the  world  ?     Or  have  I  been  made  for  this,  — 
to  lie  in  the  bed-clothes,  and  keep  myself  warm  ?  " 

But  this  is  more  pleasant.  Dost  thou  exist,  then,  to 
take  thy  pleasure,  and  not  at  all  for  action  or  exertion  ? 
Dost  thou  not  see  the  little  plants,  the  little  birds,  the  ants, 
the  spiders,  the  bees,  working  together  to  put  in  order 
their  several  parts  of  the  universe  ? 

And  art  thou  unwilling  to  do  the  work  of  a  human 
being  ?  and  dost  thou  not  make  haste  to  do  that  which  is 
according  to  thy  nature  ?  MARCUS  ANTONINUS. 

21.  O  Love  is  weak 

Which  counts  the  answers  and  the  gains, 
Weighs  all  the  losses  and  the  pains, 
And  eagerly  each  fond  word  drains 
A  joy  to  seek. 

When  Love  is  strong 
It  never  tarries  to  take  heed, 
Or  know  if  its  return  exceed 
Its  gift ;  in  its  sweet  haste  no  greed, 

No  strife  belongs. 

It  hardly  asks 

If  it  be  loved  at  all ;  to  take 
So  barren  seems,  when  it  can  make 
Such  bliss,  for  the  beloved  sake, 

Of  bitter  tasks. 

HELEN  HUNT  JACKSON. 


22  JANUARY. 

22.  "  Taste,  dear  Mrs.  Potiphar,"  said  the  Pacha, "  was 
a  thing  not  known  in  the  days  of  those  kings.     Grace  was 
entirely   supplanted  by  grotesqueness,  and  now,  instead 
of  pure  and  beautiful  Greek  forms,  we  must  collect  these 
hideous  things.    If  you  are  going  backward  to  find  models, 
why  not  go  as  far  as  the  good  ones  ?     My  dear  madam,  an 
or  molu  Louis  Quatorze  clock  would  have  given  Pericles 
a  fit.     Your  drawing-rooms  would  have  thrown  Aspasia 
into  hysterics.     Things  are  not  beautiful  because  they  cost 
money ;  nor  is  any  grouping  handsome  without  harmony. 
Your  house  is  like  a  woman  dressed  in   Ninon  de  1'En- 
clos's  bodice,  with  Queen  Anne's  hooped  skirt,  who  limps 
in  Chinese  shoes,  and  wears  an  Elizabethan  ruff  round 
her  neck,  and  a  Druse's  horn  on  her  head. 

GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

23.  We  are,  many  of  us,  in  these  days  wandering  far 
and  wide    in  despairing   search  for  some  bread  of    life 
whereby  we  may  sustain  our  souls,  some  Holy  Grail  wherein 
we  may  drink  salvation  from  doubt  and  sin.     It  may  be  a 
long,  long  quest  ere  we  find  it ;  but  one  thing  is  ready  to 
our  hands.     It  is  DUTY.     Let  us  turn  to  that  in  simple 
fidelity,  and  labor  to  act  up  to  our  own  highest  ideal  to 
be  the  very  best  and  purest  and  truest  we  know  how,  and 
to  do  around  us  every  work  of  love  which  our  hands  and 
hearts  may  reach.     When  we  have  lived  and  labored  like 
this,  then,  I  believe,  that  the  light  will  come  to  us,  as  to 
many  another  doubting  soul ;  and  it  will  prove  true  once 
more  that  "  they  who  do  God's  will  shall  know  of  his 
doctrine." 

FRANCES  POWER  COBBE. 


JANUARY.  23 

24.  Raphael  and  Guido  have  painted  the  angel  Michael 
with  a  beautiful  maiden's  face,  though  his  body  is  muscu- 
lar, and  his  wings  are  tipped  with  strength,  while,  firm  as 
a  Hercules,  he  stands  upon  the  writhing  coils  of  Satan. 
The  Devil  but  turns  his  coward  head  to  look  with  van- 
quished strength  upon  the  clear,  calm  smile  of  the  angel. 
Maidenly  love  of  what  is  pure,  of  what  is  brave,  of  what  is 
manly,  will  crush  the  evil  in  youths  who  are  tempted  ;  yes, 
and  make  from  an  Adam  of  mere  muscle  and  intelligence 
a  very  god  of  virtue.  A.  H.  R. 

25.  The  artist  was  not  just  then  at  her  easel,  but  was 
busied  with  the  feminine  task  of  mending  a  pair  of  gloves. 
There  is  something  extremely  pleasant,  and  even  touch- 
in^  _  at  least,  of  very  sweet,  soft,  and  winning  effect,  — 
in  this  peculiarity  of    needlework  distinguishing  women 
from  men.     .     .     .     Women  be  they  of  what  earthly  rank 
they  may,  however  gifted  with  intellect  or  genius,  or  en- 
dowed with  awful  beauty  — have  always  some  little  handi- 
work ready  to  fill  the  tiny  gap  of  every  vacant  moment. 
A  needle  is  familiar  to  them  all.    A  queen,  no  doubt,  plies 
it  on  occasion  :  the  woman  poet  can  use  it  as  adroitly  as 
her  pen ;  the  woman's  eye,  that  has  discovered  a  new  star 
turns  from  its  glory  to  send  the  polished  little  instrument 
gleaming  along  the  hem  of  her  kerchief  or  to  darn  a  casual 
fray  in  her    dress.     .     .     .      Methinks    it  is  a  token  of 
healthy  and  gentle  characteristics,  when  women  of  high 
thoughts  and  accomplishments  love  to  sew  ;  especially  as 
they  are  never  more  at  home  with  their  own  hearts  than 

while  so  occupied. 

HAWTHORNE. 


24  JANUARY. 

26.  Sweet  and  thoughtful  maiden  sitting  by  my  side, 
All  the  world's  before  you  and  the  world  is  wide, 
Hearts  are  there  for  winning,  hearts  are  there  to 

break, 
Has  your  own,  shy  maiden,  just  begun  to  wake  ? 

Is  that  rose  of  dawning  glowing  on  your  cheek 
Telling  us  in  blushes  what  you  will  not  speak? 
Shy  and  tender  maiden,  I  would  fain  forego 
All  the  golden  future,  just  to  keep  you  so. 

LOUISE  C.  MOULTON. 

27.  But  how  came  it  that  Florence  Nightingale  devoted 
herself  to  the  profession  of  nursing  ?     Simply  from  a  feel- 
ing of  love  and  duty.     She  need  never  have  devoted  her- 
self to  so  trying  and  disagreeable  an  occupation.    She  was 
an  accomplished  young  lady,  possessing  abundant  means. 
She  was  happy  at  home,  a  general  favorite,  and  the  centre 
of  an  admiring  circle.    .     .    .     The  soldiers  blessed  her 
as  they  saw  her  shadow  falling  over  their  pillows  at  night. 
They  did  not  know  her  name;  they  merely  called  her 
"  The  Lady  of  the  Lamp." 

SMILES. 

Every  tidy,  gentle  girl  who  goes  into  the  sick  room 
bearing  with  her,  it  may  be,  but  a  smile  or  a  touch,  carries 
a  lamp  in  her  hand,  which  is  filled  with  the  oil  of  blessing. 

A.  H.  R. 

From  henceforth  thou  shalt  learn  that  there  is  love 
To  long  for,  pureness  to  desire,  a  mount 
Of  consecration  it  were  good  to  scale. 

JEAN  INGELOW. 


JANUARY.  25 

28.  Life  consists  of  two  parts  —  Expression    and  Re- 
presssion,  — each  of  which  has  its  solemn  duties.     To  love, 
joy,  hope,  faith,  pity,  belongs  the  duty  of  expression;  to 
anger,  envy,    malice,  revenge,  and  all   uncharitableness, 
belongs  the  duty  of  repression.     Some  very  religious  and 
moral  people  err  by  applying  expression  to  both  classes 
alike.     They  repress  equally  the  expression  of  love  and 
of  hatred,  of  pity  and  of  anger.     Such  forget  one  great  law, 
as  true  in  the  moral  world  as  in  the   physical, —  that  re- 
pression lessens  and  deadens.     ...     A  compress  on  a 
limb  will  stop  its  growing;  the  surgeon  knows  this,  and 
puts  a  tight  bandage  around  a  tumor  ;  but  what  if  we  put 
a  tight  bandage  about  the  heart  and  lungs,  as  some  young 
ladies  of  my  acquaintance  do, —  or  bandage  the  feet,  as 
they  do  in  China?     And  what  if  we  bandage  a  nobler 
inner  faculty,  and  wrap  love  in  grave-clothes  ? 

HARRIET  BEECHER  STOWE. 

29.  Do  not  despise  your  love  for  the  beautiful :  cherish 
it,  develop  it  to  the  last ;  steep  your  whole  soul  in  beauty  ; 
watch  it  in  its  most  vast  and  complex  harmonies,  and  not 
less  in  its  most  faint  and  fragmentary  traces.     Learn  to 
comprehend,  to  master,  to  embody  it ;  to  show  it  forth  to 
men  as  the  sacrament  of  heaven,  the  finger-mark  of  God. 

But  more  —  God  has  not  only  made  things  beautiful ; 
He  has  made  things  happy ;  whatever  misery  there  may  be 
in  the  world,  there  is  no  denying  that.  However  sorrow 
may  have  come  into  the  world,  there  is  a  great  deal  more 
happiness  than  misery  in  it.  Misery  is  the  exception  ; 
happiness  is  the  rule. 

CHAS.  KINGSLEY. 


26  JANUARY. 

30.  "  My  children,"  Father  Le  Blanc  was  saying,  "  you 
put  all  your  treasures  into  earthen  vessels.     Your  aspira- 
tions, so  noble,  soar  upward  like  the  branches  of  the  tree, 
but  your  roots  are  in  the  earth  that  you  must  certainly 
leave.     All  your   faith  which  will  not  take  denials ;  all 
your  hopes  which  will  not  be  gainsaid  ;  all  your  wide-em- 
bracing affections  you  place  in  humanity,  — in  a  few  frail 
hearts  which  cannot  meet  the  infinity  of  your  need  and  of 
your  desire.     And  all  these  things  which  must  fail  you  and 
pass  away,  .     .    .    why  will  you  put  them  in  the  place  of 
heaven,  to  which  you  go  to  live  forever ;  in  the  place  of 
God,  whose  love  knows  no  variableness  nor  shadow  of 
turning  ?     It  is  not  I  who  undervalue  them  ;  it  is  you  who 
overestimate  them.     .     .     .     Love  them  without  sacrific- 
ing yourself  to  them.     Make  them  the  rivers  that  water 
your  life,  and  also  the  rivers  that  bear  you  to  the  infinite 
sea  into  which  they  shall  be  merged.          A.  S.  HARDY. 

31.  She  neither  regarded  them  each  and  all  as  wolves 
nor  as  possible  lovers.     .     .     .     She  was  even  capable  of 
being  utterly  unconscious  of  the  astounding  fact  of  a  tete- 
h-tete  with  a  man.     Perhaps  the  day  would  come  when  the 
clear,  steady  eyes  would  droop  and  the  brave  mouth  would 
tremble  in  the  presence  of  a  man ;  but  surely  not  for  every 
man  must  she  lose  her  sweet  freedom  and  fearlessness. 
.     .     .     What  will  the  true  king  have  when  he  comes  to 
his  throne,  if  his  golden  tribute  has  been  wasted  on  every 
passer  by?     And  when  will  the  dull  world  learn  that  truth 
may  look  out  of  the  heart  of  a  maiden  through  loyal,  fear- 
less eyes,  while  false  coquetry  often  drops  the  lid,  and 
sends  the  shy,  conscious  flush  to  the  cheek  ? 

BLANCHE  WILLIS  HOWARD. 


FEBRUARY. 

I.  The  snow  levels  all  things,  and  infolds  them  deeper 
in  the  bosom  of  nature,  as,  in  the  slow  summer,  vegetation 
creeps  up  to  the  entablature  of  the  temple,  and  the  turrets 
of  the  castle,  and  helps  her  to  prevail  over  art. 

A  healthy  man,  indeed,  is  the  complement  of  the  seasons, 
and  in  winter,  summer  is  in  his  heart.  There  is  the  South. 
Thither  have  all  birds  and  insects  migrated,  and  around 
the  warm  springs  in  his  breast  are  gathered  the  robin  and 

the  lark. 

There  is  a  slumbering  subterranean  fire  in  nature  which 
never  goes  out,  and  which  no  cold  can  chill.  In  the  cold- 
est day  it  flows  somewhere,  and  the  snow  melts  around 
every  tree.  THOREAU. 

2.  Who  quarrels  with  dancing  ?  But  then,  people  must 
dance  at  their  own  risk.  If  Lucy  Lamb,  by  dancing  with 
young  Boosey  when  he  is  tipsy,  shows  that  she  has  no 
self-respect,  how  can  I,  coolly  talking  with  Mrs.  Lamb  in 
the  corner,  and  gravely  looking  on,  respect  the  young  lady  ? 
Lucy  tells  me  that  if  she  dances  with  James  she  must  dance 
with  John.  I  cannot  deny  it,  for  I  am  not  sufficiently  fa- 
miliar with  the  regulations  of  the  mystery.  Only  this  ;  if 
dancing  with  sober  James  makes  it  necessary  to  dance 
with  tipsy  John  —  it  seems  to  me,  upon  a  hasty  glance  at 
the  subject,  that  a  self-respecting  Lucy  would  refrain  from 
the  dance  with  James.  Why  Lucy  must  dance  with  every 
man  who  asks  her,  whether  he  is  in  his  senses,  or  knows 
how  to  dance,  or  is  agreeable  to  her  or  not,  is  a  profound 

mystery  to  Paul  Potiphar. 

GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS. 


28  FEBRUARY. 

3.  If  all  women  could  realize  the  power,  the  might  of 
even  a  small  pleasure,  how  much  happier  the  world  would 
be !  and  how  much  longer  bodies  and  souls  both  would  bear 
up  under  living  \     Sensitive  people  realize  it  to  the  very 
core  of  their  being.    They  know  that  often  and  often  it 
happens  to  them  to  be  revived,  kindled,  strengthened,  to  a 
degree  which  they  could   not   describe,  and  which  they 
hardly  comprehend,  by  some  little  thing  —  some  word  of 
praise,  some  token  of  remembrance,  some  proof  of  affec- 
tion or  recognition.    They  know,  too,  that  strength  goes 
out  of  them,  just  as  inexplicably,  just  as  fatally,  when  for 
a  space,  perhaps  even  for  a  short  space,  all  these  are  want- 
ing- HELEN  HUNT  JACKSON. 

4.  The  Girl  of  the  Period,  sauntering  before  one  down 
Broadway,  is  one  panorama  of  awful  surprises  from  top  to 
toe.     Her  clothes  characterize  her.     She  never  character- 
izes her  clothes.     .    .     .     She  has  not  one  of  the  attributes 
of  nature  nor  of  proper  art.     She  neither  soothes  the  eye 
like  a  flower,  nor  pleases  it  like  a  picture.     She  wearies  it 
like  a  kaleidoscope.     She  is  a  meaningless  dazzle  of  broken 
effects.     Surely  it  is  one  of  the  requisitions  of  a  tasteful 
garb  that  the  expression  of  effort  to  please  shall  be  want- 
ing in  it;   that  the  mysteries  of  the  toilet  shall  not  be 
suggested  by  it ;   that  the  steps  to  its  completion  shall  be 
knocked  away  like  the  sculptor's  ladder  from  the  statue, 
and  the  mental  force  expended  upon  it  be  swept  away  out 
of  sight  like  chips  on  the  studio  floor. 

ELIZABETH  STUART  PHELPS. 


FEBRUARY.  29 

5.  "  One  day,  when  I  was  a  very  little  girl,  I  was  watch- 
ing my  mother  make  strawberry  preserves.     Beside  the 
stove  stood  a  large  milk  pan  containing  some  squash  for 
company  pies.     '  Now,  Bridget,'  said  my  mother,  '  at  last 
it  is  done ;  take  the  kettle  off.'    This  was  accomplished 
and  then,  with  almost  incredible  stupidity,  the  '  help '  ac- 
tually emptied  the  strawberries  into   the  squash!     My 
mother  turned  her  head  just  too  late.     She  was  quick  and 
impulsive,  but,  there  escaped  from  her  mouth  only  a  des- 
pairing '  Oh,  Bridget ! '    Then  as  she  saw  the  girl's  regretful 
face,  she  uttered  no  angry  reproaches.     No  doubt,  when 
my  tired  mother  went  up-stairs  to  rest,  she  felt  disheartened, 
and  thought  that  her  preserves  and  squash,  her  time  and 
labor,  had  all  been  wasted  ;  but  probably  she  never  did  for 
me  a  more  valuable  morning's  work  than  when  she  gave 
me  that  unconscious  lesson  in  sweet  self  control." 

"  MOTHERS  IN  COUNCIL." 

6.  I  must  confess,  however,  that  rage  and  hatred  boiled 
within  me,  but  I  wrestled  with  these  evil  spirits  till  I  could 
say  to  myself :   "  No,  the  wicked  shall  not  so  far  trouble 
me  as  to  poison  my  heart.    No,  I  will  do  all  the  good  I  can 
to  those  who  falsely  call  themselves  Christians  and  fol- 
lowers of  the  religion  of  love.     One  thing  certainly  I  cannot 
do,  I  cannot  love  my  enemies,  and  I  know  no  one  who 
can ;  nay,  I  believe  the  saying  was  never  meant  in  that 
sense,  only,  as  it  is  written  afterwards  :   I  can  and  I  must 
do  good  to  those  who  have  injured  me.     .     .     .     We  can- 
not force  ourselves  to  love  our  enemy,  but  we  can  force 
ourselves  to  help  him  and  to  do  good  to  him.    This  I  must 
do  —  I  can  and  I  will."  AUERBACH. 


30  FEBRUARY. 

7.  Ever  since  spinning  was  a  type  of  womanly  industry, 
from  age  to  age  and  nation  to  nation,  it  has  been  expected 
that  beautiful  apparel  should  clothe  women.     From  the 
classic  robes  of  an  Aspasia  to  the  rich  dresses  cf  Elizabeth, 
and  thence  to  the  wedding  gown  of  Puritan  Priscilla,  we 
see  the  value  and  attractiveness  of  dress.     But  there  are 
some  costumes  I  cannot  abide,  can  you  ?     Have  you  never 
seen  girls  whose  dresses  looked  like  books  with  the  begin- 
ning and  ending  gone,  which  reminded  you  of  "  antiques 
and  horribles  "or  of  what  musicians  call  medleys — "Lis- 
ten to  the  Mocking  Bird,"  "  Nearer  my  God  to  Thee," 
"Hail  Columbia,"  all  in  a  whirl  ?     What  is  the  matter? 
Lack  of  harmony.  A.  H.  R. 

8.  Yet  in  herself  she  dwelleth  not, 

Although  no  home  were  half  so  fair  ; 
No  simplest  duty  is  forgot ; 
Life  hath  no  dim  and  lowly  spot 

That  doth  not  in  her  sunshine  share. 

She  doeth  little  kindnesses 

Which  most  leave  undone,  or  despise ; 

For  nought  that  sets  one  heart  at  ease, 

And  giveth  happiness  or  peace, 
Is  low-esteemed  in  her  eyes. 

She  hath  no  scorn  of  common  things, 
And,  though  she  seem  of  other  birth, 

Round  us  her  heart  entwines  and  clings, 

And  patiently  she  folds  her  wings 
To  tread  the  humble  paths  of  earth. 

LOWELL. 


FEBRUARY.  31 

9.  When  people  wish  to  say  —  not  how  great  a  distance 
they  have  to  go  in  order  to  reach  a  certain  place,  but  how 
far  it  really  is  straight  from  point  to  point  — they  say  it  is 
so  far,  as  the  crow  flies.  Now,  Polly,  suppose  you  try  to 
do  all  you  have  to  do  "  as  the  crow  flies."  Don't  be  like 
the  robin,  which  flew  down,  and  then  up  again,  and  then 
stopped,  and  considered,  and  fluttered  about;  but  go  on 
patiently  and  steadily,  "  as  the  crow  flies." 

JEAN  INGELOW. 

We  do  nothing  heartily  and  happily  that  we  do  not  do 
honestly,  with  a  single  eye  and  perfect  self-reliance. 

SUMNER  ELLIS. 

10.  She  looked  real.  Her  bright  hair  was  gathered  up 
loosely,  with  some  graceful  turn  that  showed  its  fine  shin- 
ing strands  had  all  been  freshly  dressed  and  handled; 
...  it  was  not  packed  and  stuffed  and  matted  and  put 
on  like  a  pad  or  bolster,  from  the  bump  of  benevolence, 
all  over  that  and  everything  else  gentle  and  beautiful,  down 
to  the  bend  of  her  neck;  and  her  dress  suggested  always 
some  one  simple  idea  which  you  could  trace  through  it,  in 
its  harmony,  at  a  glance ;  not  complex  and  bewildering 
and  fatiguing  with  its  many  parts  and  folds  and  festoonings 
and  the  garnishings  of  every  one  of  these.  She  looked 
more  as  young  women  used  to  look  before  it  took  a  lady 
with  her  dressmaker  seven  toilsome  days  to  achieve  a 
"  short  street  suit,"  and  the  public  promenades  became  the 
problems  that  they  now  are  to  the  inquiring  minds  that 
are  forced  to  wonder  who  stops  at  home  and  does  up  all 
the  sewing,  and  where  the  hair  all  comes  from. 

MRS.  A.  D.  T.  WHITNEY. 


32  FEBRUARY. 

11.  Quite  the  ugliest  face  I  ever  saw  was  that  of  a 
woman  whom  the  world  calls  beautiful.     Through  its  "  sil- 
ver veil  "  the  evil  and  ungentle  passions  looked  out  hideous 
and  hateful.     On  the  other  hand,  there  are  faces  which  the 
multitude  at  the  first  glance  pronounce  homely,  unattract- 
ive, and  such  as  "Nature  fashions  by  the  gross,"  which  I 
always  recognize  with  a  warm  heart-thrill ;   not  for  the 
world  would  I  have  one  feature  changed  ;   they  please  me 
as  they  are  ;   they  are  hallowed  by  kind  memories ;   they 
are  beautiful  through  their  associations  ;   nor  are  they  any 
the  less  welcome  that  with  my  admiration  of  them  "  the 
stranger  intermeddleth  not."  WHITTIER. 

12.  Nothing  comes  amiss  in  the  great  business  of  prep- 
aration, if  it  has  been  thoroughly  well  learned.    And  the 
strangest  things  come  of  use,  too,  at  the  strangest  times. 
A  sailor  teaches  you  to  tie  a  knot  when  you  are  on  a  fishing 
party,  and  you  tie  that  knot  the  next  time  when  you  are 
patching  up  the  Emperor  of  Russia's  carriage  for  him,  in 
a  valley  in  the  Ural  Mountains.     But  "  getting  ready  "  does 
not  mean  the  piling  in  of  a  heap  of  accidental  accomplish- 
ments.    It  means  sedulously  examining  the  coming  duty  or 
pleasure,  imagining  it  even  in  its  details,  decreeing  the  ut- 
most punctuality  so  far  as  you  are  concerned,  and  thus 
entering  upon  them  as  a  knight  armed  from  head  to  foot. 

EDWARD  EVERETT  HALE. 

Keep  steadily  before  you  the  fact  that  all  true  success 
depends  at  last  upon  yourself,  —  trite  to  weariness,  I 
acknowledge,  but  one  of  those  eternal  truths  to  be  kept 
before  us  as  we  heed  gravitation  and  appetite.  The  tritest 
is  always  the  truest.  THEODORE  T.  HUNGER. 


FEBRUARY.  33 

13.       I  cannot  think  but  God  must  know 
About  the  thing  I  long  for  so  ; 
I  know  He  is  so  good,  so  kind, 
I  cannot  think  but  He  will  find 
Some  way  to  help,  some  way  to  show 
Me  to  the  thing  I  long  for  so. 

I  stretch  my  hand  —  it  lies  so  near  : 
It  looks  so  sweet,  it  looks  so  dear. 
"  Dear  Lord,"  I  pray,  "  Oh  let  me  know 
If  it  is  wrong  to  want  it  so  ? " 
He  only  smiles,—  He  does  not  speak  ; 
My  heart  grows  weaker  and  more  weak, 
With  looking  at  the  thing  so  dear, 
Which  lies  so  far,  and  yet  so  near. 

Now,  Lord,  I  leave  at  Thy  loved  feet 
This  thing  which  looks  so  near,  so  sweet ; 
I  will  not  seek,  I  will  not  long,  — 
I  almost  fear  I  have  been  wrong. 
I'll  go,  and  work  the  harder,  Lord, 
And  wait  till  by  some  loud,  clear  word 
Thou  callest  me  to  Thy  loved  feet, 
To  take  this  thing  so  dear,  so  sweet. 

SAXE  HOLM. 

14.  I  have  read  and  well  I  believe  it,  that  a  friend  is  in 
prosperity  a  pleasure,  in  adversity  a  solace,  in  grief  a  com- 
fort, in  joy  a  merry  companion,  at  all  times  another  /,  in 
all  places  the  express  image  of  mine  own  person  ;  insomuch 
that  I  cannot  tell  whether  the  immortal  gods  have  bestowed 
any  gift  upon  mortal  men,  either  more  noble  or  more  nec- 
essary than  friendship.  LYLY'S  "  EUPHUES." 


34  FEBRUARY. 

15.  That  she  had  faults  we  need  not  deny.    But  as  an 
example  of  one  who,  gifted  with  great  powers,  aspired  only 
to  their  noblest  uses ;   who,  able  to  rule,  sought  rather  to 
counsel  and  to  help, —  she  deserves  a  place  in  the  highest 
niche  of  her  country's  affection.    As  a  woman  who  believed 
in  women,  her  word  is  still  an  evangel  of  hope  and  inspira- 
tion to  her  sex.     Her  heart  belonged  to  all  God's  creatures, 
and  most  to  what  is  noblest  in  them.     Gray-headed  men  of 
to-day,  the  happy  companions  of  her  youth,  grow  young 
again  when  they  speak  of  her.     One  of  these  still  recalls 
her  as  the  greatest  soul  he  ever  knew.     Such  a  word, 
spoken  with  the  weight  of  ripe  wisdom,  may  fitly  indicate 
to  posterity  the  honor  and  reverence  which  belong  to  the 
memory  of  Margaret  Fuller. 

JULIA  WARD  HOWE. 

1 6.  There  is  never  a  "Might-have-been"  that  touches 
with  a  sting,  but  reveals  also  to  us  an  inner  glimpse  of  the 
wide  and  beautiful  "  May-be."     It  is  all  there ;   somebody 
else  has  it  now,  while  we  wait. 

MRS.  A.  D.  T.  WHITNEY. 

We  know  not,  verily,  that  which  is  laid  up  for  us.  There 
are  such  beautiful  things  put  by.  In  God's  house  and  in 
God's  time,  there  are  such  treasures. 

MRS.  A.  D.  T.  WHITNEY. 

Hope  unlocks  the  temple  doors.  Despair  rusts  the 
keys.  Each  must  know  her  own  anxieties  best ;  but  the 
trials  of  all,  we  shall  sometime  see,  are  but  bitter  on  the 
outside,  sweet  and  nourishing  within.  Believe  in  the  some- 
time. A.  H.  R. 


FEBRUARY.  35 

17.  What  makes  the  "  best  society  "of  men  and  women  ? 
The  noblest  specimens  of  each,  of  course.  The  men  who 
mould  the  time,  who  refresh  our  faith  in  heroism  and  vir- 
tue. .  .  The  women,  whose  beauty,  and  sweetness,  and 
dignity,  and  high  accomplishment,  and  grace,  make  us 
understand  the  Greek  mythology,  and  weaken  our  desire 
to  have  some  glimpse  of  the  most  famous  women  of  his- 
tory. The  "  best  society  "  is  that  in  which  the  virtues  are 
the  most  shining,  which  is  the  most  charitable,  forgiving, 
long-suffering,  modest,  and  innocent.  The  "best  society  " 
is,  by  its  very  name,  that  in  which  there  is  the  least  hypoc- 
risy and  insincerity  of  all  kinds,  which  recoils  from,  and 
blasts,  artificiality,  which  is  anxious  to  be  all  that  it  is  pos- 
sible to  be,  and  which  sternly  reprobates  all  shallow 
pretence,  all  coxcombery  and  foppery  and  insists  upon 
simplicity  as  the  infallible  characteristic  of  true  worth. 
That  is  the  "  best  society  "  which  comprises  the  best  men 
and  women.  GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS. 


18.  "  You  are  seeking  your  own  will,  my  daughter. 
You  are  seeking  some  good  other  than  the  law  you  are 
bound  to  obey.  But  how  will  you  find  good  ?  It  is  not  a 
thing  of  choice  :  it  is  a  river  that  flows  from  the  foot  of 
the  Invisible  Throne,  and  flows  by  the  path  of  obedience. 
I  say  again,  man  cannot  choose  his  duties.  You  may 
choose  to  forsake  your  duties,  and  choose  not  to  have  the 
sorrow  they  bring.  But  you  will  go  forth  ;  and  what  will 
you  find,  my  daughter?  Sorrow  without  duty  — bitter 
herbs,  and  no  bread  with  them.  GEORGE  ELIOT. 


36  FEBRUARY. 

19.  ...     The  Mahomets,  the  Carlyles,  the  George 
Eliots,  need  their  Cadijahs,  but  not  so  much,  I  would  say, 
as  do  the  people  with  whom  we  come  in  contact  every  day, 
in  common  ways  and  common   places.     ...     I  deem  it 
true  that  deeper  than  the  craving  for  health,  or  wealth,  or 
love,  is  the  craving  for  recognition,  the  deep  desire  to  be 
known  for  what  we  truly  are  ;   to  hear  from  some  human 
lips  our  rightful  name     ...     to  hear  this  name,  that  at 
last  we  may  answer  to  it,  and  find  and  keep  our  undisputed 
place.     If  you  miss  health,  miss  wealth,  lose  or  lack  love, 
may  you  not  miss  the  gift  from  another  of  divining  faith  in 
you ;   this  faith  which  is,  as  is  all  faith,  the  gift  of  God. 
The  name  of  every  Cadijah  is  also  Theodora. 

ROSE  E.  CLEVELAND. 

20.  Live  for  something.     Do  good  and  leave  behind 
you  a  monument  of  virtue  that  the  storm  of  time  can  never 
destroy.     Write  your  name  in  kindness,  love,  and  mercy  on 
the  hearts  of  thousands  you  come  in  contact  with,  year  by 
year:   you  will  never  be  forgotten     .     .     .    your  name, 
your  deeds,  will  be  as  legible  on  the  hearts  you  leave  be- 
hind as  the  stars  on  the  brow  of  evening.     Good  deeds 
will  shine  as  the  stars  of  heaven.  CHALMERS. 

There  is  nothing  — no,  nothing  —  innocent  or  good  that 
dies  and  is  forgotten ;  let  us  hold  to  that  faith  or  none. 
An  infant,  a  prattling  child,  dying  in  the  cradle  will  live 
again  in  the  better  thoughts  of  those  that  loved  it,  and  play 
its  part  through  them  in  redeeming  actions  of  the  world, 
though  its  body  be  burnt  to  ashes,  or  drowned  in  the  deep 
sea-  DICKENS. 


FEBRUARY.  37 

21.  Whatever  it  be  that  keeps  the  finer  faculties  of  the 
mind  awake,  wonder  alive,  and  the  interest  above  mere 
eating   and   drinking,  money-making   and  money-saving ; 
whatever  it  be  that  gives  gladness,  or  sorrow,  or  hope, — 
this,  be  it  violin,  pencil,  pen,  or,  highest  of  all,  the  love  of 
woman,  is  simply  a  divine  gift  of  holy  influence  for  the 
salvation  of  that  being  to  whom  it  comes,  for  the  lifting 
of  him  out  of  the  mire  and  upon  the  rock.     For  it  keeps 
a  way  open  for  the  entrance  of  deeper,  holier,  grander  in- 
fluences emanating  from  the  same  riches  of  the  Godhead. 

GEORGE  MACDONALD. 

22.  Pamela,  who  that  day  having  wearied  her  selfe  with 
reading    .     .     .     was  working  upon  a  purse  certaine  roses 
and  lillies.     .     .     .     The  flowers  shee  had  wrought  caried 
such  life  in  them,  that  the  cunningest  painter  might  have 
learned  of  her  needle  :    which,  with  so  pretty  a  manner, 
made  his  careers  to  &  fro  through  the   cloth,  as  if  the 
needle  itselfe  would  haue  been  loth  to  haue  gone  fromward 
such  a  mistresse,  but  that  it  hoped  to  returne  thitherward 
very  quickly  againe ;   the  clothe  looking  with  many  eyes 
vpon  her,  and  louingly  embracing  the  wounds  she  gaue  it ; 
the  sheares  also  were  at  hand  to  behead  thesilke  that  was 
growne  too  short.     And  if  at  any  time  shee  put  her  mouth 
to  bite  it  off,  it  seemed,  that  where  she  had  beene  long  in 
making  of  a  rose  with  her  hands,  she  would  in  an  instant 
make  roses  with  her  lips;  -as  the  lillies  seemed  to  haue 
their  whitenesse  rather  of  the  hand  that  made  them,  than 
of  the  matter  whereof  they  were  made  ;   £  that  they  grew 
there  by  the  suns  of  her  eyes,  and  were  refreshed  by  the 
most     .     .     .     comfortable  ayre,  which  an  unawares  sigh 
might  bestow  upon  them.  PHILIP  SIDNEY. 


38  FEBRUARY. 

23.  Be  but  faithful,  that  is  all. 

Go  right  ony  and  close  behind  thee, 
There  shall  follow  still  andyfo^  thee, 
Help,  sure  help  ! 

ARTHUR  HUGH  CLOUGH. 

When  Douglas  was  carrying  the  heart  of  Bruce  in  the 
silver  case,  to  bury  it  in  the  Holy  Land,  he  was  attacked 
by  a  body  of  Turks,  and  finding  the  result  somewhat 
doubtful  he  took  the  silver  case  and  flung  it  among  the 
ranks  of  the  enemy,  saying,  "  O  brave  heart  of  Bruce  !  go 
foward  as  you  have  ever  done,  and  I  will  follow."  Take 
the  beating  heart  of  Christ  and  throw  it  among  your  tempt- 
ations, and  follow  where  that  leads,  by  its  divine  impulses, 
by  its  eternal  recognition  of  that  which  alone  is  right,  and 
good  and  true.  CHAPIN. 

24.  Expression  is  the  loftiest  and  the  final  charm  in 
every  human  face.     While  it  is  right,  indeed  a  heavenly 
intuition,  to  desire  beauty,  and  while  attention  to  the  laws 
of  hygiene,  good  taste,  and  good  behavior  mightily  con- 
duce to  it,  heavenly  thoughts  are  the  only  sure  rceipe  for 
a  countenance  of  heavenly  expression.     St.  Cecilia  heard 
the  music  of  the  upper  courts,  and  hence  her  face  mirrors 
its  ethereal  loveliness.     It  is  not  only  true  that  prayer  will 
cause  a  man  to  cease  from  sinning,  even  as  sin  will  cause  a 
man  to  cease  from  prayer,  but"  it  is  also  true  that  no  heart 
can  be  lifted  up  toward  God  as  a  lily  lifts  its  chalice  to  the 
sun,  without  the  face  beaming  with  a  light  which  never 
shone  on  sea  or  shore,  but  which  reflects  the  shekinah  of 
the  upper  sanctuary.  FRANCES  E.  WILLARD. 


FEBRUARY.  39 

25.  The  tendency  to  persevere,  to  persist  in  spite  of 
hindrances,  discouragements,  and  impossibilities — it   is 
this  that  in  all  things  distinguishes  the  strong  soul  from  the 
weak.  CARLYLE. 

Near  the  close  of  the  Middle  Ages  there  lived  in  Spain 
a  girl  whose  persistent  efforts  after  reforms  in  the  Catho- 
lic religion,  and  whose  endeavors  after  a  pure  and  conse- 
crated life,  made  people  call  her  in  after-times  "  Saint 
Theresa."  So  noble  was  her  devotion  to  truth,  so  perse- 
vering her  endeavor  for  charity's  sake,  that  even  her 
bodily  infirmities  and  her  poverty  had  to  succumb  to  her 
iofty  purposes.  When  founding  the  Carmelite  Convent 
of  Toledo,  she  was  taunted  with  the  harsh  fact  that  she 
had  only  four  ducats  to  begin  her  work  of  mercy.  But  she 
replied  to  the  reproach  by  saying,  "  Theresa  and  this  money 
are  indeed  nothing  ;  but  God  and  Theresa  and  four  ducats 
can  accomplish  anything."  A.  H.  R. 

26.  The  want  of  occupation  is  no  less  the  plague  of 
society  than  of  solitude.  ROUSSEAU. 

You  just  take  hold  of  something  and  try.  You'll  find 
there's  always  a  working  alongside.  Put  up  your  sails  and 
the  wind  will  fill  'em.  MRS.  A.  D.  T.  WHITNEY. 

Absorbing  occupation  was  with  Mme.  de  Stae'l,  as  it  is 
with  all  energetic  minds,  a  necessary  condition  of  content- 
ment and  of  mental  health.  "  I  see,"  she  says,  "  that 
time  divided  is  never  long,  and  that  regularity  abridges  all 
things."  ABEL  STEVENS. 


40  FEBRUARY. 

27.  But  our  school-girl  is  largely  occupied  with  becom- 
ing "  a  young  lady."     She  may  lose  sight  of  her  intention 
by  and  by,  when  she  enters  Lassell,  or  Wellesley,  or  Vas- 
sar ;   but  at  present,  especially  if  she  be  a  village  girl,  she 
does  not  know  even  the  joyous  restful  weariness  of  a  long 
vigorous  walk,  much  less  would  she  run.     .     .     .     Very 
likely  treasures  of  flowers,  rare  plants,  minerals,  birds,  and 
beautiful  landscape  views,  illustrating  the   sciences    and 
literature   she   is  industriously  studying  in-doors,  lie  all 
about  her,  among  the  hills  and  woods,  within  walking  dis- 
tance.    But  she  is  none  the  richer.     She  and  a  friend,  arm 
in  arm,  frequently  "  promenade  ;  "    she  stands    about   in 
groups,  she   returns   calls,  she  goes  shopping,  she  wears 
high  French  heels,  and  wears  them,  too,  as  nearly  as  may 
be,  under  her  insteps.     She  has  been  known  to  visit  the 
chiropodist.  MARY  J.  SAFFORD.  M.  D. 

28.  If  you  are  to  see  clearly  all  your  life,  you  must  not 
sacrifice  eyesight  by  over-straining  it;   and  the  same  law 
of  moderation  is  the  condition  of  preserving  every  other 
faculty.     I  want  you  to  know  the  exquisite  taste  of  common 
dry  bread;    to  enjoy  the  perfume  of  a  larch  wood  at  a  dis- 
tance ;   to  feel  delight  when  a  sea-wave  dashes  over  you. 
I  want  your  eye  to  be  so  sensitive  that  it  shall  discern  the 
faintest  tones  of  a  gray  cloud,  and  yet  so  strong  that  it 
shall  bear  to  gaze  on  a  white  one  in  the  dazzling  glory  of 
sunshine.     I  would  have  your  hearing  sharp  enough  to  de- 
tect the  music  of  the  spheres,  if  it  were  but  audible,  and 
yet  your  nervous   system   robust  enough  to  endure  the 
shock  of  the  guns  on  an   ironclad.     To  have  and  keep 
these  powers,  we  need  a  firmness  of  self-government  that 
is  rare,  HAMERTON. 


MARCH. 

1.  Ah  !  March  !  we  know  thou  art 
Kind-hearted,  spite  of  ugly  looks  and  threats, 
And,  out  of  sight,  art  nursing  violets. 

HELEN  HUNT  JACKSON. 
Nearer  and  ever  nearer 

Drawing  with  every  day ! 
But  a  little  longer  to  wait  and  watch 

'Neath  skies  so  cold  and  gray  ; 

And  hushed  is  the  roar  of  the  bitter  north 

Before  the  might  of  the  spring, 
And  up  the  frozen  slope  of  the  world 

Climbs  Summer,  triumphing. 

CELIA  THAXTER. 

2.  If  books  cost  in  proportion  to  their  grade  or  value, 
or  if  the  higher  levels  of  composition  and  creation  were,  of 
necessity,  so  written  that  they  could  be  understood  only  by 
severe  application,  like  that  of  learning  a  foreign  language, 
or  the  higher  mathematics,  how  would  society  be  affected 
with  a  fresh  and  worthy  sense  of  the  privilege  of  books 
and  reading !     If  only  the  aristocracy  of  wealth  could  buy 
Dante  and  the  Waverley  Novels,  and  the  literature  of  the 
age  of  Elizabeth,  or  could  read  of  Copernicus,  or  Her- 
schell's  astromony,  or  could  own  the   Prophets  and  the 
four  Gospels  ! 

No,  — we  do  not  say  the  empire  of  letters,  the  kingdom 
of  letters,  the  aristocracy  or  oligarchy  of  letters,  but  the 
republic  of  letters.  T.  STARR  KING. 


42  MARCH. 

3.  I  know  the  Miss  Osbornes  were  excellent  critics  of 
a  cashmere  shawl,  or  a  pink  satin  slip ;  and  when  Miss 
Turner  had  hers  dyed  purple,  and  made  into  a  spencer  ; 
and  when  Miss  Pickford    had  her  ermine  tippet  twisted 
into  a  muff  and  trimmings,  I  warrant  you  the  changes  did 
not  escape  the  two  intelligent  young  women  before  men- 
tioned.    But  there  are  things,  look  you,  of  a  finer  texture 
than  fur  or  satin,  and  all  Solomon's  glories,  and  all  the 
wardrobe  of  the  Queen  of  Sheba;  —  things  whereof  the 
beauty  escapes  the  eye  of  many  connoisseurs.     And  there 
are  sweet  modest  little  souls  on  which  you  light,  fragrant 
and  blooming  tenderly  in  quiet  shady  places ;  and  there 
are  garden-ornaments,  as  big  as  brass  warming-pans,  that 
are  fit  to  stare  the  sun  itself  out  of  countenance. 

THACKERAY. 

4.  In  very  truth,  Mary  Marston  was  already  immeasur- 
ably more  of  a  lady  than  Hesper  Mortimer  was  ever  likely 
to  be  in  this  world.     What  was  the  stateliness  and  pride 
of  the  one  compared  to  the  fact  that  the  other  would  have 
died  in  the  work-house  or  on  the  street  rather  than  let  a 
man  she  did  not  love  embrace  her.  —  To  be  a  martyr  to  a 
He  is  but  false  ladyhood.     There   was   nothing   striking 
about  her;  she  made  no  such  sharp  impression  on  the 
mind  as  compelled  one  to  think  of  her  again  ;  yet  always, 
when  one  had  been  long  enough  in  her  company  to  feel 
the  charm  of  her  individuality,  the  very  quiet  of  any  quiet 
moment  was  enough  to  bring  back  the  sweetness  of  Mary's 
twilight  presence.     For  this  girl,  who  spent  her  days  be- 
hind a  counter,  was  one  of  the  spiritual  forces  at  work  for 
the  conservation  and  recovery  of  the  universe. 

GEORGE  MACDONALD. 


MARCH.  43 

5.  I  should  have  a  small  book-case,  just  one  shelf,  and 
on  it  I  should  arrange  the  biographies  of  those  women 
who  represent  the  best  lives  in  all  positions  and  callings. 
I  should  select  not  perfect  women  —  they  cannot  be  found 
—  but  I  should  choose  such  as  have  been  ideally  brave, 
faithful,  industrious  and  true  to  the  duty  which  lay  closest 
to  them.     I  should  want  them  to  represent  what  woman 
has  done  in  religion,  literature,  science,  art,  history,  as  well 
as  in  domestic  industries,  in  philanthropy  and  in  the  home. 
But,  mind  you,  girls,  I  should  not  always  prefer  the  lives 
of  those  women  about  whose  feet  the  world  has  cast  the 
most  crowns.  A.  H.  R. 

That  which  is  ideally  beautiful  or  strong  in  men  and 
women  imparts  courage  to  us  who  learn  about  them  ;  but 
there  are  brave  and  gentle  lives,  surrounded  by  debasing 
circumstances,  which  the  world  only  too  rarely  exhalts. 

A.  H.  R. 

6.  Patience  and  struggle.     An  earnest  use  of  what  we 
have  now,  and,  all  the  time,  an  earnest  discontent  until 
we  come  to  what  we  ought  to  be.     Are  not  these  what  we 
need  ?     What,  in  their  rich  union,  we  could  not  get,  except 
in  just  such  a  life  as  this  with  its  delayed  completions  ? 
Jesus  does  not  blame  Peter  when  he  impetuously  begs  that 
he  may  follow  Him  now.     He  bids  him  wait  and  he  shall 
follow  Him  some  day.     But  we  can  see  that  the  value  of 
his  waiting  lies  in  the  certainty  that  he  shall  follow,  and 
the  value  of  his  following,  when  it  comes,  will  lie  in  the 
fact  that  he  has  waited.     So,  if  we  take  all  Christ's  culture, 
we  are  sure  that  our  life  on  earth  may  get  already  the 
inspiration  of  the  heaven  for  which  we  are  training,  and 
our  life  in  heaven  may  keep  forever  the  blessing  of  the 
earth  in  which  we  were  trained.  PHILLIPS  BROOKS. 


44  MARCH. 

7.  She  looks  through  life,  and  with  a  balance  just 

Weighs  men  and  things,  beholding  as  they  are 
The  lives  of  others  :   in  the  common  dust 

She  finds  the  fragments  of  the  ruined  star  : 
Proud,  with  a  pride  all  feminine  and  sweet, 

No  path  can  soil  the  whiteness  of  her  feet. 

The  steady  candor  of  her  gentle  eyes, 
Strikes  dead  deceit,  laughs  vanity  away; 

She  hath  no  room  for  petty  jealousies, 

Where  Faith  and  Love  divide  their  tender  sway. 

Of  either  sex  she  owns  the  nobler  part : 

Man's  honest  brow  and  woman's  faithful  heart. 
BAYARD  TAYLOR. 

8.  "  They  are  in  God's  hands,"  answered   Falconer. 
"  He  hasn't  done  with  them  yet.     Shall  it  take  less  time 
to  make  a  woman  than  to  make  a  world  ?     Is  not  the 
woman  the  greater?     She  may  have  her  ages  of  chaos, 
her  centuries  of  crawling  slime,  yet  rise  a  woman  at  last." 

"  It  always  comes  back  upon  me,  as  if  I  had  never  known 
it  before,  that  women  like  some  of  those  were  of  the  first 
to  understand  our  Lord."  GEORGE  MACDONALD. 

Not  to  the  shorn  lamb  alone,  always  are  sharp  winds 
beneficently  tempered.     There  is  mercy,  also,  to  the  mis- 
erable wolf.  MRS.  A.  D.  T.  WHITNEY. 
What's  done  we  partly  may  compute, 
But  know  not  what's  resisted.  BURNS. 
Yet  to  the  worst  despair  that  comes  through  sin 
God's  light  shall  reach  at  last. 

CELT  A  THAXTER. 


MARCH.  45 

9.  "  I  have  had  no  exact  system  with  my  niece  Rosa- 
mund.    Perhaps  I  have  erred  in  this.     But  I  should  be 
grieved  to  see  her  losing  unconsciousness  and  fearlessness. 
She  has  never  learned  to  be  afraid.     I  should  be  pained 
if  she  should  begin  to  think  much  about  evil,  even  for  the 
purpose  of  avoiding  it.     I  have  always  had  the  idea,  that, 
although  I  myself,  as  a  girl,  was  far  from  a  headstrong, 
impetuous,   brilliant  character,  had  anyone   said  to  me, 
4  Young  girl,  here  is  a  pleasant  garden,  where  you   may 
play,  and  here  is  a  great,  mysterious  wall,  with  something 
highly  interesting  beyond,  which  you  must  not  see  or  think 
about — making  daisy-chains  would  have  palled  upon  me 
at  last ;    and,  though  I  might  not  have  actually  ventured 
on  the  forbidden  ground,  I  am  very  sure  I  should  at  least 
have  found  a  ladder,  climbed  up,  and  peeped  over  the  wall 
to  my  heart's  content."       BLANCHE  WILLIS  HOWARD. 

10.  Work,  then,  girls  !     Work  for  pleasure,  work  for 
profit !     Work  for  the   health  of   your  bodies,  and  the 
health  of  your  souls  !     "  You  will  find  that  the  mere  re- 
solve not  to  be  useless,  and  the  honest  desire  to  help  other 
people,  will,   in   the   quickest    and    most  delicate   ways, 
improve   yourselves."     ..."  When  men  are    rightly 
occupied  their  amusement  grows  out  of  their  work,  as  the 
color  petals  out  of  a  fruitful  flower ;    when  they  are  faith- 
fully helpful  and  compassionate,  all  their  emotions  become 
steady,  deep,  perpetual,  and  vivifying  to  the  soul  as  the 
natural  pulse  to  the  body." 

To  these  great  truths  of  Ruskin  add  these  bits  of  warn- 
ing :  whatever  your  work  is,  be  not  impatient  for  great 
results.  Go  slowly,  remembering  the  necessity  for  thor- 
oughness and  for  bringing  your  strongest  action  to  bear 
upon  the  important  points.  A.  H.  R. 


46  MARCH. 

11.  There  is  such  an  expression  used  as  "society  man- 
ners."    Alice  and  Phebe  Gary  had  no  manner  for  society 
more  charming  in  the  slightest  particular,  than  they  had 
for  each  other.     No  pun  ever  came  into  Phebe's  head  too 
bright  to  be  flashed  over  Alice,  and  Alice  had  no  gentle- 
ness for  strangers  which  she  withheld  from  Phebe.     The 
perfect  gentlewomen  which  they  were  in  the  parlor,  they 
were  always,  under  every  circumstance.     There  was  not  a 
servant  in  the  house,  who,  in  his  or  her  place,  was  not 
treated  with  as  absolute  a  politeness  as  a  guest  in  the  par- 
lor.    This  spirit  of  perfect  breeding  penetrated  every  word 
and  act  of  the  household.     What  Alice  and  Phebe  Gary 
were  in  their  drawing-room,  they  were  always  in  the  abso- 
lute privacy  of  their  lives.     Each  obeyed  one  inflexible 
law-  MARY  CLEMMER. 

12.  To  sleep  well  is  one  of  your  duties.     Do  not  culti- 
vate, do  not  permit,  any  of  the  sentimental  nonsense  which 
speaks  as  if  sleep  were  a  matter  of  chance,  or  were  out  of 
your  control.     You  must  sleep  well,  if  you  mean  to  do  the 
rest  well.     You  must  have  body  and  mind  in  good  working 
order  ;   and  they  will  not  be  in  good  working  order,  unless 
you  sleep  regularly,  steadily,  and  enough.     Do  not  place 
any  confidence  in  the  old  laws  which  limit  the  amount  of 
sleep.     There  are  such  old  lines  as  "  six  hours  sleep  for  a 
maid,  and  seven  hours  sleep  for  a  man."     Take  all  you 
need.     .     .     .     The  rule  is  correlative  to  the  rule  for  work. 
Thomas  Drew  stated  it  thus :   "  You  have  no  right  in  any 
day  to  incur  more  fatigue  than  the  sleep  of  the  next  night 

will  recover  from." 

EDWARD  EVERETT  HALE. 


MARCH.  47 

13.  The  old,  old  story ;  yet  I  kneel 

To  tell  it  at  Thy  call ; 
And  cares  grow  lighter  as  I  feel 

My  Father  knows  them  all. 
Yes,  all !     The  morning  and  the  night, 

The  joy,  the  grief,  the  loss, 
The  roughened  path,  the  sunbeam  bright, 

The  hourly  thorn  and  cross. 

And  He  has  loved  me  !     All  my  heart 

With  answering  love  is  stirred ; 
And  every  anguished  pain  and  smart 

Finds  healing  in  the  word. 
So  here  I  lay  me  down  to  rest, 

As  nightly  shadows  fall, 
And  lean,  confiding,  on  His  breast, 

Who  knows  and  pities  all !  ANON. 

14.  At  sixteen  or  eighteen,  or  perhaps  at  twenty,  a  girl 
can  toss  a  jaunty  little  felt  hat  upon  her  head,  pin  it  in  a 
twinkling  above  her  wayward  hair,  tie  on  a  bit  of  blue  or 
red  somewhere  about  her  blouse,  brush  her  short  walking- 
skirt  into  becoming  folds,  tie  up  her  tennis  shoes,  and  there 
she  is  in  five  minutes,  prettier,  fresher,  more  becomingly 
dressed  than  all  the  older  women  of  the  household,  who 
have  been  standing  before  the  mirror  trying  this  effect  and 
that  for  the  last  hour.     Ask  a  girl  how  she  does  it,  how 
she  manages  to  make  her  hat  bend  down  and  up,  and  in 
and  out,  in  all  kinds  of  alluring  ways,  and  she  does  not 
know, —  it  belongs  to  girls  to  do  such  things.     Of  course 
it  does  !  A.  H.  R. 


48  MARCH. 

15.  Leslie  was  different,  in  some  things,  from  the  little 
world  of  girls  about  her.     .     .     .     She  was  like  a  bit  of 
fresh,  springing,  delicate  vine  in  a  bouquet  of  bright  simi- 
larly beautiful  flowers ;  taking  little  free  curves  and  reaches 
of  her  own,  just  as  she  had  grown ;   not  tied,  nor  placed, 
nor  constrained  ;  never  the  central  or  most  brilliant  thing  ; 
but  somehow  a  kind  of  life  and  grace  that  helped  and 
touched  and  perfected  all. 

There  was  something  very  real  and  individual  about 
her ;  she  was  no  "  girl  of  the  period,"  made  up  by  the 
fashion  of  the  day.  She  would  have  grown  just  as  a  rose 
or  a  violet  would,  the  same  in  the  first  quarter  of  the  cen- 
tury or  the  third.  They  called  her  "  grandmotherly " 
sometimes,  when  a  certain  quaint  primitiveness  that  was 
in  her  showed  itself.  And  yet  she  was  the  youngest  girl 
in  all  that  set,  as  to  simpleness  and  freshness  and  unpre- 
tendingness,  though  she  was  in  her  twentieth  year  now, 
which  sounds  —  so  very  old !  Adelaide  Marchbanks  used 
to  say  of  her  that  she  "  stayed  fifteen." 

MRS.  A.  D.  T.  WHITNEY. 

16.  So  I  am  content  to  tell  my  simple  story,  without 
trying  to  make  things  seem  better  than  they  were ;   dread- 
ing nothing,  indeed,  but  falsity,  which,  in  spite   of  one's 
best  efforts,  there  is  reason  to  dread.     Falsehood  is  so 
easy,  truth   so   difficult.     Examine  your  words  well,  and 
you  will  firid  that  even  when  you  have  no  motive  to  be 
false,  it  is  a  very  hard  thing  to  say  the  exact  truth,  even 
about  your  own  immediate  feelings, —  much  harder  than 
to  say  something  fine  about  them  which  is  not  the  exact 
truth.  GEORGE  ELIOT. 


MARCH.  49 

17.  Great  men  and  great  causes  have   always   some 
helper  of  whom  the  outside  world  knows  but  little.     Some- 
times these  helpers  have  been  men,  sometimes  they  have 
been  women,  who  have   given   themselves  to  help  and 
strengthen  those  called  upon  to  be  leaders  and  workers,  in- 
spiring them  with  courage,  keeping  faith  in  their  own  idea 
alive,  in  days   of  darkness.     Of  this  noble  company  of 
unknown  helpers  Caroline  Herschel  was  one.     She  stood 
beside  her  brother,  William  Herschel,  sharing  his  labors, 
helping  his  life.     .     .     She  became  his  assistant  in  the 
workshop ;  she   helped  him  to  grind  and  polish  his  mir- 
rors ;   she  stood  beside  his  telescope  in  the  nights  of  mid- 
winter, to  write  down  his  observations,  when  the  very  ink 
was  frozen.     She  kept  him  alive  by  her  care;   thinking 
nothing  of  herself,  she  lived  for  him.     She  loved  him,  be- 
lieved in  him,  and  helped  him,  with  all  her  heart  and  with 
all  her  strength.  MRS<  JOHN  HERSCHEL. 

18.  It  was  a  lovely  day.     The  sun  shone  so  warm  that 
you  could  not  help  thinking  of  what  he  would  be  able  to 
do  before  long  —  draw  primroses  and  buttercups  out  of 
the  earth  by  force  of  sweet  persuasive  influences.     But  in 
the  shadows  lay  fine  webs  and  laces  of  ice,  so  delicately 
lovely  that  one  could  not  but  be  glad  of  the  cold  that  made 
the  water  able  to  please  itself  by  taking  such  graceful 
forms.     And  I  wondered  over  again  for  the  hundredth 
time,  what  could  be  the  principle  which,  in  the  wildest, 
most  lawless,  fantastically  chaotic,  apparently  capricious 
work  of  nature,  always  kept  it  beautiful.     The  beauty  of 
holiness  must  be  at  the  heart  of  it  somehow,  I  thought. 

GEORGE  MACDONALD. 


50  MARCH. 

19.  "I  do  not  object  to  plain,  pure  sugar  candies,  if 
eaten  as  a  dessert  now  and  then,"  said  I,  much  to  their 
surprise.     "  The   flavoring    and   coloring   are   often  mis- 
chievous.    Keep  that  in  mind.     Still  I  rather  you  would 
give  candies  the  go-by  along  with  the  peppers  and  limes, 
and  get  your  positive  sweets  and  sours  from  fruits.     Let 
an  orange  before  breakfast  be  your  only  between-meal  in- 
dulgence.    When  once  you  have  gained  an  appetite  for 
healthy  foods,  the  idea  of  food  between  meals   will  be 
actually  repugnant  to  you.     And  don't  you  know  that  your 
stomach  is  bound  to  take  hold  of  food  and  try  to  digest  it 
just  as  soon  and  just  as  often  as  any  is  offered  it?     You 
will  feel  very  different  then  from  head  to  foot  when  your 
stomach  is  allowed  its  rightful  and  regular  rests.     This 
precaution  alone  will  help  you  to  a  good  appetite  in  time." 

MARY  J.  S AFFORD,  M.  D. 

20.  You  may  be  poor ;   you  may  lead  lives  of  struggle  ; 
your  occupations  may  run  counter  to  many  of  the  natural 
delights  of  youth ;   you  may  see  no  relief,  no  outlook  to  a 
tedious  and  dull  routine.     Well,  bear  it  all,  and  bate  no 
jot  of  heart  or  hope  ;  for,  in  spite  of  it  all,  you  need  never 
fail. 

Be  good  and  do  good,  and  you  will  have  won  something 
better  than  a  fortune  or  a  coronet.  To  do  this  may  not 
save  you  from  abuse,  or  opposition,  or  earthly  loss  ;  but  if 
this  and  a  thousand  other  calamities  come  upon  you,  you 
will  be  at  the  promontory,  at  whose  base  the  tide-waves 
break  in  vain.  Look,  I  say,  at  the  cross  of  Christ,  and 
study  all  that  it  means,  and  you  will  understand  the  mean- 
ing of  your  life.  CANON  FARRAR. 


MARCH.  51 

21.  Small  courtesies  sweeten  life;  the  greater  ennoble 

BOVEE. 

Courtesy  in  the  mistress  of  a  house  consists  in  feeding 
conversation,  never  in  usurping  it.  She  is  the  guardian  of 
this  species  of  sacred  fire,  but  it  must  be  accessible  to  all. 

MME.  SWETCHINE. 

The  innocent  and  kindly  little  arts  that  make  some  peo- 
ple as  useful  and  beloved  as  good  fairy  god-mothers  were 
once  upon  a  time.  LOUISA  M.  ALCOTT. 

Fuller  says,  that  "  William,  Earl  of  Nassau,  won  a  sub- 
ject from  the  King  of  Spain,  every  time  he  put  off  his  hat. 

EMERSON. 

22.  "  Girls  are  such  enthusiasts  !  "     Of  course  they  are, 
my  friend.      That's  what  I   like   in  them  —  enthusiasm. 
The  sad  thing  is  that  it  oozes  out  when  they  become  women. 

"  Yes,  and  they  always  solemnly  determine  they  will  do 
something  grand,  and  then  down  they  come,  everyone  of 
'em  to  the  commonplace  !  "  Well,  housekeeping,  a  mother's 
cares,  teaching,  spinning,  writing  may  be  common  enough, 
but  I  do  not  like  to  have  the  best  things  —  the  most  nec- 
essary —  called  commonplace.  It  makes  them  seem  triv- 
ial. So,  I  say,  girls,  carry  your  enthusiasm  into  every  one 
of  them,  no  matter  if  you  never  rise  to  distinction. 

A.  H.  R. 

Nothing  is  so  contagious  as  enthusiasm ;  it  is  the  real 
allegory  of  the  tale  of  Orpheus  —  it  moves  stones,  it 
charms  brutes.  Enthusiasm  is  the  genius  of  sincerity, 
and  truth  accomplishes  no  victories  without  it. 

BULWER. 


52  MARCH. 

23.  Books  give  to  all  who  will  faithfully  use  them,  the 
society  and  the  presence  of  the  best  and  greatest  of  our 
race.     No  matter  how  poor  I  am;  no  matter  though  the 
prosperous    of   my  own  time  will   not  enter  my  obscure 
dwelling,  if  learned  men  and  poets  will  enter  and  take  up 
their   abode  under   my  roof,  —  if   Milton  will  cross  my 
threshold  and  sing  to  me  of  Paradise  ;  and  Shakespeare 
open  to  me  the  world  of  imagination  and  the  workings  of 
the  human  heart;  and  Franklin  enrich  me  with  his  practi- 
cal wisdom,  —  I  shall  not  pine  for  want  of  intellectual 
companionship,  and  I  may  become  a  cultivated  man,  though 
excluded  from  what  is  called  the  best  society  in  the  place 
where  I  live.     Nothing  can  supply  the  place  of  books. 

CHANNING. 

24.  "  To  look  up  and  not  down ; 
To  look  forward  and  not  back ; 
To  look  out  and  not  in ; 

And 
To  lend  a  hand." 

EDWARD  EVERETT  HALE. 

You  never  miss  an  opportunity  of  giving  innocent  pleas- 
ure, or  helping  another  soul  on  the  path  to  God,  but  you 
are  taking  away  from  yourselves  forever  what  might  have 
been  a  happy  memory,  and  leaving  in  its  place  pain  or 
remorse.  FRANCES  POWER  COBBE. 

Every  individual  has  a  place  in  the  world,  and  is  im- 
portant in  some  respect,  whether  he  chooses  to  be  so  or 
not.  HAWTHORNE. 

Everybody  has  a  way  of  living ;  if  you  can  get  into  it, 
everyone  is  as  good  as  a  story. 

MRS.  A.  D.  T.  WHITNEY. 


MARCH.  53 

25.  I  confess  that  the  evening  talk  over  the  dessert  at 
dinner  is  much  more  entertaining  and  piquant  than  the 
morning  paper,  and  often  as  important.     There  is  no  en- 
tertainment so  full  of  quiet  pleasure  as  the  hearing  a  lady 
of  culture  and  refinement  relate  her  day's  experience  in  her 
daily  round  of  calls,  charitable  visits,  shopping,  errands  of 
relief  and  condolence.     I  don't  mean  gossip,  by  any  means, 
or  scandal.     A  woman  of  culture  skims  over  that  like  a 
bird,  never  touching  it  with  the  tip  of  a  wing.      What  she 
brings  home  is  the  freshness  and  brightness  of  life.     She 
touches  everything  so  daintily,  she  hits  off  a  character  in 
a  sentence,  she  gives  the  pith  of  a  dialogue  without  tedious- 
ness,  she  mimics  without  vulgarity ;  her  narration  sparkles 
but  it  doesn't  sting.     The  picture  of  her  day  is  full  of  vi- 
vacity, and  it  gives  new  value  and  freshness  to  common 
things.  CHARLES  DUDLEY  WARNER. 

26.  "  A  commonplace  life  "  we  say  and  we  sigh, 

Yet  why  should  we  sigh  as  we  say  ? 
The  commonplace  sun  in  the  commonplace  sky 

Makes  up  the  commonplace  day. 
The  moon  and  the  stars  are  commonplace  things, 
And  the  flower  that  blooms  and  the  bird  that  sings, 
Yet  dark  were  the  world  and  sad  our  lot, 
If  the  flower  failed,  or  the  sun  shone  not ; 
And  God  who  studies  each  separate  soul, 
Out  of   commonplace    lives   makes  his  beautiful 

whole.  SUSAN  COOLIDGE. 

Nor  knowest  thou  what  argument 
Thy  life  to  thy  neighbor's  creed  has  lent. 
All  are  needed  by  each  one  ; 
Nothing  is  fair  or  good  alone.  EMERSON. 


54  MARCH. 

27.  Reverence  the  highest,  have  patience  with  the  low- 
est.    Let  this  day's  performance  of  the  meanest  duty  be 
thy  religion.     Are  the  stars  too  distant,  pick  up  the  pebble 
that  lies  at  thy  feet,  and  from  it  learn  the  all. 

MARGARET  FULLER  OSSOLI. 

Let  us  do  our  duty  in  our  shop  or  our  kitchen,  the  mar- 
ket, the  street,  the  office,  the  school,  the  home,  just  as 
faithfully  as  if  we  stood  in  the  first  rank  of  some  great 
battle,  and  we  knew  that  victory  for  mankind  depended 
upon  our  bravery,  strength  and  skill. 

THEODORE  PARKER. 

Faithfulness  in  little  things  fits  one  for  heroism  when 
the  great  trials  come.  LOUISA  M.  ALCOTT. 

28.  If  you  want  to  know  people  you  must  get  near 
them ;  first  get  down  to  their  level,  and  then  bring  them 
up  to  yours,  not  waiting  for  any  great  occasion,  or  a  more 
direct  revelation,  but  taking  advantage  of  small  opportu- 
nities, and  making  your  influence  felt  in  quiet,  unobtrusive 
ways. 

There  is  always  some  one  to  smile  at,  somebody  to  give 
your  chair  to,  somebody  to  whom  a  book,  a  flower,  or  even 
an  old  paper,  will  be  a  boon.  These  small  attentions  will 
open  the  way  to  confidence,  will  make  it  possible  that  in 
need  these  friends  will  give  you  opportunities  to  help  them 
which,  unless  you  had  shown  thoughtfulness  and  regard 
for  them,  they  could  never  have  done.  A  quiet,  sympa- 
thetic look  or  smile  many  a  time  unbars  a  heart  that  needs 
help  which  you  can  give.  JOSEPHINE  POLLARD, 


MARCH.  55 

29.  Ask  the  labourer  in  the  field,  at  the  forge,  or  in  the 
mine ;    ask  the   patient,  delicate-fingered  artisan,  or  the 
strong-armed,  fiery-hearted  worker  in  bronze,  and  in  mar^ 
ble,  and  with  the  colours  of  light ;  and  none  of  these,  who 
are  true  workmen,  will  ever  tell  you,  that  they  have  found 
the  law  of  heaven  an  unkind  one  —  that  in  the  sweat  of 
their  face  they  should  eat  bread,  till  they  return  to  the 
ground ;  nor  that  they  ever  found  it  an  unrewarded  obe- 
dience, if,  indeed,  it  was  rendered  faithfully  to  the  com- 
mand —  "  Whatsoever  thy  hand  findeth  to  do  —  do  it  with 
thy  might."  RUSKIN. 

30.  Every  considerate  word  we  utter  concerning  those 
about  us  ;  every  time  we  give  them  the  benefit  of  a  doubt 
in  our  judgment  of  their  motive  ;  every  time  we  take  occa- 
sion to  couple  with  our  demurrer  from  their  position  some 
saving  clause  of  appreciation,  we  are  habituating  ourselves 
to  that  charity  which  "  suffereth  long  and  is  kind." 

Just  as  you  now  play  a  piece  without  the  music  and  do 
not  think  what  notes  you  strike,  though  once  you  picked 
them  out  by  slow  and  patient  toil,  so  if  you  begin  of  set 
purpose,  you  will  learn  the  law  of  kindness  in  utterance  so 
perfectly,  that  it  will  be  second  nature  to  you,  and  make 
more  music  in  your  life  than  all  the  songs  the  sweetest 
voice  has  ever  sung.  FRANCES  E.  WILLARD. 

If  a  good  face  is  a  letter  of  recommendation,  a  good 
heart  is  a  letter  of  credit.  BULWER. 

Keep  thyself  simple,  good,  pure,  kind,  and  affectionate. 
Make  thyself  all  simplicity. 

MARCUS  AURELIUS. 


56  MARCH. 

31.  Why  does  the  moaning  of  the  storm  give  me  pleas- 
ure ?  Methinks  because  it  puts  to  rout  the  trivialness  of 
our  fair-weather  life,  and  gives  it,  at  least,  a  tragic  interest. 
The  sound  has  the  effect  of  a  pleasing  challenge  to  call 
forth  our  energy  to  resist  the  invaders  of  our  life's  territory. 
It  is  as  musical  and  thrilling  as  the  sound  of  an  enemy's 
bugle.  Our  spirits  revive  like  lichens  in  a  storm.  There 
is  something  worth  living  for  when  we  are  resisted,  threat- 
ened. .  .  .  If  it  were  not  for  physical  cold  how  should 
we  have  discovered  the  warmth  of  the  affections  ?  I  some- 
times feel  that  I  need  to  sit  in  a  far-away  cave  through  a 
three  weeks'  storm,  cold  and  wet,  to  give  a  tone  to  my 
system.  The  spring  has  its  windy  March  to  usher  it  in, 
with  many  soaking  rains  reaching  into  April. 

THOREAU. 


APRIL. 

1.  "  Oh,   keep   me   innocent ;     make    others   great !  " 
Those  words  were  written  by  Queen  Caroline  Matilda  of 
Denmark,  with  a  diamond,  on  her  window  in  the  castle  of 
Freudsborg  ;   and,  could  we  but  live  in  that  spirit,  many  a 
one  might  be  saved  from  such  bitter  disappointment  as 
makes  men  well-nigh  wish  that  they  had  never  been  born. 
The  jewel  of  innocence  is  more  than  a  crown. 

CANON  FARRAR. 

"  My  children,  beware  of  popularity  ;  it  is  a  delusion  and 
a  snare  ;  it  puffeth  up  the  heart  of  man,  and  especially  of 
woman  ;  it  blindeth  the  eyes  to  faults  ;  it  exalteth  unduly 
the  humble  powers  of  the  victim ;  it  is  apt  to  be  capri- 
cious ;  and  just  as  one  gets  to  liking  the  taste  of  this  intox- 
icating draught,  it  suddenly  faileth,  and  one  is  left  gasping 
like  a  fish  out  of  water."  LOUISA  M.  ALCOTT. 

2.  Yes,  I  believe  in  ideals.    Some  of  us  will  owe  our  suc- 
cess, our  worth  to  them.     I  would  not  have  Joan  of  Arc's 
life-story  changed  in  the  least,  and  I  hope  historians  will 
never  become  so  critical  as  to  erase  her  name  from  the 
books  as  they  have  William  Tell's.     But  I  believe  this, 
too,  that,  among  our  friends,  ideals  which  grow  upon  us 
are  far  sweeter  and  more  helpful  than  those  recommended 
by  a  first  glance.     I  believe  that  a  girl   ought  to  pass 
quickly  through  a  state  of  infatuation,  blind  adoration  of  a 
mortal,  that  she  ought  to  allow  some  chance  for  faults,  and 
some  room  for  loving  others  too,  then  she  will  save  herself 
from  future  disgust  and  make  raillery  against  the  friend- 
ships of  girls  cease.  A.  H.  R. 

57 


58  APRIL. 

3.  It  comes  far  easier  to  scold  our  friend  in  an  angry 
moment  than  to  say  how  much  we  love,  honor,  and  esteem 
him  in  a  kindly  mood.     Wrath  and  bitterness  speak  them- 
selves and  go  with  their  own  force ;  love  is  shamefaced, 
looks  shyly  out  of  the  window,  lingers  long  at  the  door 
latch. 

I  hate  is  said  loud  and  with  all  our  force.     I  love  is  said 
v/ith  a  hesitating  voice  and  blushing  cheek. 

In  an  angry  mood  we  do  an  injury  to  a  loving  heart 
with  good,  strong,  free  emphasis ;  but  we  stammer  and 
hang  back  when  our  diviner  nature  tells  us  to  confess  and 
ask  pardon.  Even  when  our  heart  is  broken  with  repent- 
ance, we  haggle  and  linger  long  before  we  can 
Throw  away  the  worser  part. 

HARRIET  BEECHER  STOWE. 

4.  Her  air,  her  smile,  her  motions,  told 

Of  womanly  completeness ; 
A  music  as  of  household  songs 
Was  in  her  voice  of  sweetness. 

Not  beautiful  in  curve  and  line, 

But  something  more  and  better, 
The  secret  charm  eluding  art, 

Its  spirit,  not  its  letter  ;  — 

An  inborn  grace  that  nothing  lacked 

Of  culture  or  appliance, — 
The  warmth  of  genial  courtesy, 

The  calm  of  self-reliance. 

WHITTIER. 


APRIL.  59 

5.  It's  good  to  put  a  bother  away  over  night.     It  all 
straightens  out  in  the  morning. 

MRS.  A.  D.  T.  WHITNEY. 

The  best  thing  to  take  people  out  of  their  own  worries 
is  to  go  to  work  and  find  out  how  other  folks'  worries  are 
getting  on.  MRS.  A.  D.  T."  WHITNEY. 

It  will  all  come  out  somehow.  It  has  got  to,  you  know. 
Things  always  do,  they  can't  stay  up  in  arms. 

MRS.  A.  D.  T.  WHITNEY. 

Look  on  other  lives  beside  your  own  ;  see  what  their 
troubles  are,  and  how  they  are  borne. 

GEORGE  ELIOT. 

6.  One  cowslip,  though  it   shows  the  yellow,  is   not 
fairly  out,  but  will  be  by  to-morrow.     How  they  improve 
their  time.     Not  a  moment  of  sunshine  is  lost.     One  thing 
I  may  depend  on,  there  has  been  no  idling  with  the  flowers. 
Nature  loses  not   a   moment,  takes  no  vacation.     They 
advance  as  steadily  as  a  clock.    These  plants  now  protected 
by  the  water,  are  just  peeping  forth.     I  should  not  be  sur- 
prised to  find  that  they  drew  in  their  heads  in  a  frosty 
night.  THOREAU. 

The  year's  at  the  spring, 
And  day's  at  the  morn ; 
Morning's  at  seven ; 
The  hill-side's  dew-pearled ; 
The  lark's  on  the  wing ; 
The  snail's  on  the  thorn ; 
God's  in  His  heaven  — 
All's  right  with  the  world. 

ROBERT  BROWNING. 


60  APRIL. 

7.  It  is  just  as  bad,  when  you  are  talking  to  another 
girl,  or  another  girl's  mother,  if  you  take  to  watching  her 
hair,  or  the  way  she  trimmed  her  frock,  instead  of  watching 
what  she  is  saying  as  if  that  were  really  what  you  and  she 
are  talking  for.     I  could  name  to  you  young  women  who 
seem  to  go  into  society  for  the  purpose  of  studying  the 
milliner's  business.     It  is  a  very  good  business,  and  a  very 
proper  business  to  study  in  the  right  place.     I  know  some 
very  good  girls  who  would  be  much  improved,  and  whose 
husbands  would  be  a  great  deal   happier,  if  they  would 
study  it  to  more  purpose  than  they  do.     But  do  not  study 
it  while  you  are  talking.     No, —  not  if  the  Empress  Eu- 
genie herself  should  be  talking  to  you. 

EDWARD  EVERETT  HALE. 

8.  If  Christ  had  to  be  made  perfect  by  sufferings,  much 
more  must  we.     If  he  needed  to  learn  obedience  by  sorrow, 
much  more  must  we.     If  he  needed,  in  the  days  of  his 
flesh,  to  make  supplication  to  God  his  Father  with  strong 
crying  and  tears,  so  do  we.     And  if  he  was  heard  in  that 
he  feared,  so  I  trust,  we  shall  be  heard  likewise.     If  he 
needed  to  taste  even  the  most  horrible  misery  of  all ;   to 
feel  for  a  moment  that  God  had  forsaken  him  ;   surely  we 
must  expect,  if  we  are  to  be  made  like  him,  to  have  to 
drink  at  least  one  drop  out  of  his  bitter  cup.     It  is  very 
wonderful :   but  yet  it  is  full  of  hope  and  comfort,  to  be 
able,  in  our  darkest  and  bitterest  sorrow,  to  look  up  to 
heaven  and  say,   "  At  least  there  is   one   who  has  been 
through  all  this."  CHARLES  KINGSLEY. 

Sorrow  is  often  misquoted.     It  is  only  one  step  in  a 
long  journey,  one  stage  in  a  long  growth.      A.  S.  HARDY. 


APRIL.  6 1 

9.  "  And  the  three  Marys  brought  precious  spices  to 
anoint  our  Lord.     Take  good  heed  now,  my  dear  sisters  ; 
these  three  Marys  denote  three  bitternesses,  as  the  name 
signifieth.     The  first  bitterness  is  remorse  and  making 
amends  for  sin,  and  this  is  the  first  Mary,  Mary  Magdalene, 
for  she  in  great  bitterness  of  heart  left  off  her  sins  and 
turned  to  our  Lord.     The  second  bitterness  is  in  wrestling 
and  struggling  against  temptation,  and  this  is  that  other 
Mary,  the   mother  of  Jacob,   which  meaneth  wrestling. 
This  wrestling  is  very  bitter  to  many  who  are  well  ad- 
vanced in  the  way  to  heaven,  for  they  still  waver  in  tempt- 
ation.    And  the  third  bitterness  consists  in  longing   for 
heaven  and  weariness  of  this  world,  when  one  is  of  such 
piety  that  his  heart  is  at  rest  with  the  war  of  vice,  and  is 
as  it  were  in  the  gates  of  heaven,  where  all  worldly  things 
seem  bitter  to  him.     And  this  bitterness  is  to  be  under- 
stood by  the  third  Mary,  Mary  Salome,  which  signifieth 
peace."  A.  S.  HARDY. 

10.  Soeur  Marie  bent  her  head  over  her  book  as  she 
read.     All  her  thoughts  were  there.     "  But  now  observe 
here,  my  dear  sisters,  how  after  bitterness  cometh  sweet- 
ness.    Bitterness  buyeth  it,  for,  as  the  Gospel  saith,  these 
three  Marys  brought  sweet-smelling  spices  to  anoint  our 
Lord.     By  spices,  which  are  sweet,  is  to  be  understood 
the  sweetness  of  a  devout  heart.     These  three  Marys  buy 
it,  that  is,  through  bitterness  we  arrive  at  sweetness.     So 
saith  God's  dear  spouse,  I  will  go  to  the  hill  of  frankin- 
cense by  the  mountain  of  myrrh.     Observe  :  which  is  the 
way  to  the  sweetness  of  frankincense  ?     By  the  myrrh  of 
bitterness."  A.  S.  HARDY. 


62  APRIL. 

1 1.  The  best  sort  of  bravery, —  the  courage  to  do  right. 

LOUISA  M.  ALCOTT. 

Far  away  there  in  the  sunshine  are  my  highest  aspira- 
tions. I  cannot  reach  them,  but  I  can  look  up  and  see 
their  beauty,  believe  in  them,  and  try  to  follow  where  they 
lead.  LOUISA  M.  ALCOTT. 

O  power  to  do  !   O  baffled  will ! 

O  prayer  and  action  !   ye  are  one  — 
Who  may  not  strive,  may  yet  fulfil 
The  harder  task  of  standing  still, 

And  good  but  wished  with  God  is  done. 

WHITTIER. 

And  having  done  all,  to  stand. 
Stand,  therefore.  ST.  PAUL. 

12.  Oh!  Nature  is  so  modest!     But  once  set  her  talk- 
ing, she  will  forget  your  presence,  and  babble  like  the 
brook.     How  much  she  has  told  the  poets,  and  the  men 
of  science !     How  much  she  will  tell  you,  too,  if  you  but 
heed  her ! 

Ah,  girls,  what  slight  attention  we  have,  in  reality, 
shown  to  Nature  !  We  treat  her  more  like  a  servant  than 
a  friend  and  companion.  The  desire  for  excitement  has 
turned  our  minds  to  vainer  subjects.  The  struggles  which 
our  elders  have  made  for  money  and  position  have  deprived 
them  of  chances  for  regarding  natural  objects.  However 
deplorable  this  may  be,  it  is  a  still  more  lamentable  fact, 
that  you,  dear  girls,  give  so  little  heed  to  Nature, —  you 
who  have  time  and  to  spare.  It  lies  with  you  to  cultivate 
this  love  for  the  natural  world,  that  future  generations 
may  be  more  mindful  of  it.  A.  H.  R. 


APRIL.  63 

13.  Beauty  of  achievement,  whether  in  overcoming  a 
hasty  temper,  a  habit  of  exaggeration,  in  exploring  a  con- 
tinent with  Stanley,  or  guiding  well  the  ship  of  state  with 
Gladstone,  is  always  fascinating,  and  whether  known  in  a 
circle  large  as  the  equator  or  only  in  the  family  circle  at 
home,  those  who  are  in  this  fashion  beautiful  are  never 
desolate,  and  some  one  always  loves  them.     Beauty  of 
reputation  is  a  mantle  of  spotless  ermine  in  which  if  you 
are  but  enwrapped  you  shall  receive  the  homage  of  those 
about  you,  as  real,  as  ready,  and  as  spontaneous  as  any 
ever  paid  to  personal  beauty  in  its  most  powerful  hour. 
Some  sort  of  reputation  you  must  have,  whether  you  will 
or  no.     In  school,  in  church,  at  home,  and  in  society,  you 
carry  ever  with  you  the  wings  of  a  good,  or  the  ball  and 
chain  of  a  bad  reputation.     Resolve  to  make  it  beautiful, 
clean,  shining,  gracious.  FRANCES  E.  WILLARD. 

14.  (i.)     Read  first  the  one   or  two  great   standard 
works  in  each  department  of  literature. 

(  2.  )     Confine,  then,  your  reading  to  that  department 
which  suits  the  particular  bent  of  your  minds. 

1.  Before  you  begin  to  peruse  a  book,  know  something 
about  the  author. 

2.  Read  the  preface  carefully. 

3.  Take  a  comprehensive  survey  of  the  table  of  con- 
tents. 

4.  Give  your  whole  attention  to  whatever  you  read. 

5.  Be  sure  to  note  the  most  valuable  passages. 

6.  Write  out,  in  your  own  language,  a  summary  of  the 
facts  you  have  noted. 

7.  Apply  the  results  of  your  reading  to  your  every-day 
duties.  DAVID  PRYDE. 


64  APRIL. 

15.  Observe,  only  observe!   and  curiosity  will  press  for 
you  the  very  secrets  out  of  the  woods,  the  streams,  the 
skies.     Look  around  you  !     There  is  such  an  infinite  num- 
ber of  objects  to  consider  right  about  your  own  porch-door, 
—  the  lichens  on  the  door-stone,  the  apple-tree  shading 
the  path,  the  striped  pebble  that  you  kick  aside,  the  plant 
pressing  up  between  the  boards,  the  dew  shimmering  on 
the  weed.     Investigate  all  your  surroundings,  especially 
the  small,  neglected  places,  and  try  to  have  an  opinion 
about  what  you  observe.     Do  not  think  of  yourselves  as 
living  in  rooms  and  houses,  but  as  living  in  the  house,  the 
palace  of  the  earth  and  sky,  whose  every  gallery,  corridor 
and  hall,  is  carpeted  with  Nature's  tapestries  of  unfading 
color  and  deep  softness  ;  whose  walls  are  hung  with  glow- 
ing sunsets ;  and  whose  roof  is  lighted  with  windows  of 
blue  sky.  A.  H.  R. 

1 6.  A.  habit  of  mistrust  is  the  torment  of  some  people. 
It  taints  their  love  and  their  friendship.    They  take  up 
small  causes  of  offence.     They  expect  their  friends  to  show 
the  same  aspect  to  them  at  all  times,  which  is  more  than 
human  nature  can  do.     They  try  experiments  to  ascertain 
whether  they  are  sufficiently  loved  ;  they  watch  narrowly 
the  effects  of  absence,  and  require  their  friends  to  prove  to 
them  that  the  intimacy  is  exactly  upon  the  same  footing  as 
it  was  before.     Some  persons  acquire   these  suspicious 
ways  from  a  natural  diffidence  in  themselves.    .     .    With 
others,  these  habits  arise  from  a  selfishness  which  cannot 
be  satisfied.    And  their  endeavors  should  be  to  uproot 
such  a  disposition,  not  to  soothe  it. 

ARTHUR  HELPS. 


APRIL.  65 

17.  Like  a  cradle  rocking,  rocking, 

Silent,  peaceful,  to  and  fro, 
Like  a  mother's  sweet  looks  dropping 

On  the  little  face  below, 
Hangs  the  green  earth,  swinging,  turning, 

Jarless,  noiseless,  safe,  and  slow ; 
Falls  the  light  of  God's  face  bending 

Down  and  watching  us  below. 

And  as  feeble  babes  that  suffer, 

Toss,  and  cry,  and  will  not  rest, 
Are  the  ones  the  tender  mother 

Holds  the  closest,  loves  the  best, — 
So  when  we  are  weak  and  wretched, 

By  our  sins  weighed  down,  distressed, 
Then  it  is  that  God's  great  patience 

Holds  us  closest,  loves  us  best. 

SAXE  HOLM. 

18.  In  our  whole  social  intercourse  with  our  fellows  — 
in  the  family,  the  home,  in  society,  and  in  all  public  work 
—  the  power  of  any  individual  to  do  good  must  depend  al- 
most measure  for  measure  on  the  extent  of  that  individual's 
power  of  sympathy, —  the  wideness  and  the  warmth  of  his 
heart.     The  power  of  thinking,  the  capacity  of  his  head,  is 
but  a  secondary  matter.     .     .     .     Never  think  —  you  who 
are  young  and  glorying,  perhaps,  in  the  grand  new  fields  of 
intellectual  culture  opened  before  you  —  that  the  intellect 
is  nobler  than  the  heart,  that  knowledge  is  greater  than 
love.    Not  so !     A  thousand  times  no  !    .    .    .     It  is  here, 
in  the  faculty  of  noble,  disinterested,  unselfish  love,  that 
lies  the  true  gift  and  power  of  our  womanhood. 

FRANCES  POWER  COBBE. 


66  APRIL. 

19.  When  I  see  a  ruddy,  romping  school-girl  in  her  first 
long  dress,  beginning  to  avoid  coasting  on  her  double-run- 
ner, or  afraid  of  the  stone  walls  in  the  blueberry-fields,  or 
standing  aloof  from  the  game  of  base-ball,  or  turning  sadly 
away  from  the  ladder  which  her  brother  is  climbing  to  the 
cherry-tree,  or  lingering  for  him  to  assist  her  over   the 
gunwale  of  a  boat ;  when  I  read  of  the  sinking  of  steamers 
at  sea,  with  "  nearly  all  the  women  and  children  on  board," 
and  the  accompanying  comments,  "  Every  effort  was  made 
to  assist  the  women  up  the  masts  and  out  of  danger  till 
help  arrived,  but  they  could  not  climb,  and  we  were  forced 
to  leave  them  to  their  fate  " —  when  I  consider  these  things, 
I  feel  that  I  have  ceased  to  deal  with  blunders  in  dress, 
and  have  entered  the  category  of  crimes. 

ELIZABETH  STUART  PHELPS. 

20.  I  do  not  think  I  exaggerate  the  importance  or  the 
charms  of  pedestrianism,  or  our  need  as  a  people  to  culti- 
vate the  art.     I  think  it  would  tend  to  soften  the  national 
manners,  to  teach  us  the  meaning  of  leisure,  to  acquaint  us 
with  the  charms  of  the  open  air,  to  strengthen  and  foster 
the  tie  between  the  race  and  the  land.     .    .     .    The  roads 
and  paths  you  have  walked  along  in  summer  and  winter 
weather,  the  fields  and  hills  which  you  have  looked  upon 
in  lightness  and  gladness  of  heart,  when  fresh  thoughts 
have  come  into  your  mind,  or  some  noble  prospect  has 
opened  before  you,  and  especially  the  quiet  ways  where 
you  have  walked  in  sweet  converse  with  your  friend,  paus- 
ing under  the  trees,  drinking  at  the  spring  —  henceforth 
they  are  not  the  same;    a  new  charm  is  added;    those 
thoughts  spring  there  perennial,  your  friend  walks  there 
forever.  JOHN  BURROUGHS. 


APRIL.  67 

21.  It  is  only  a  poor  sort  of  happiness  that  could  ever 
come  by  caring  very  much  about  our  own  narrow  pleasures. 
We  can  only  have  the  highest  happiness,  by  having  wide 
thoughts,  and  much  feeling  for  the  rest  of  the  world  as 
well  as  ourselves  ;    and  this  sort  of  happiness  often  brings 
so  much  pain  with  it,  that  we  can  only  tell  it  from  pain  by 
its  being  what  we  would   choose  before  everything  else, 
because  our  souls  see  it  is  good.     There  are  so  many 
things  wrong  and  difficult  in  the  world,  that  no  man  can 
be  great  unless  he  gives  up  thinking  much  about  pleasure 
or  rewards,  and  gets  strength  to  endure  what  is  hard  and 
painful. 

And  so,  my  Lillo,  if  you  mean  to  act  nobly  and  seek  to 
know  the  best  things  God  has  put  within  reach  of  men, 
you  must  learn  to  fix  your  mind  on  that  end,  and  not  on 
what  will  happen  to  you  because  of  it. 

GEORGE  ELIOT. 

22.  "  Perfectly  true,   perfectly  right,"  said  I.  "  Every 
word  good  as  gold.     Truth  before  all   things  ;    sincerity 
before  all  things  :  pure,  clear,  diamond-bright  sincerity  is 
of  more  value  than  the  gold  of  Ophir ;   the  foundation  of 
all  love  must  rest  here.     ...     If  I  once  know  that  my 
wife  or  my  friend  will  tell  me  only  what  she  thinks  will  be 
agreeable  to  me,  then  I  am  at  once  lost,  my  way  is  a  path- 
less quicksand.     But  all  this  being  promised,  I  still  say 
that  we  Anglo-Saxons  might  improve  our  domestic  life,  if 
we  would  graft  upon  the  strong  stock  of  its  homely  sincer- 
ity the  courteous  graces  of  the  French  character." 

HARRIET  BEECHER  STOWE. 


68  APRIL. 

23.  Girls  and  boys  have  too  slight  an  appreciation  of 
manual  labor.     In  most  ways,  work  with  the  hands  is  more 
necessary  than  mental  labor.     God  made  man  work  in  a 
garden  before  he  gave  him  power  to  write  books  or  keep 
accounts.     Fine  white  hands  are  very  pretty  when  they  be- 
long to  a  lady ;   but  sunburnt,  muscular  ones  are  beautiful 
too,  in  a  vineyard. 

May  I  warn  you  not  to  despise  the  small  amount  of  work 
you  can  accomplish,  as  compared  with  what  others  are 
able  to  do  ?  Let  me  remind  you,  too,  that  it  is  not  so 
much  what  we  get  in  money,  buildings,  knowledge,  reputa- 
tion, influence,  by  means  of  work,  as  what  labor  does  for 
ourselves,  our  characters  that  is  valuable  to  us.  Carlyle 
expressed  the  idea  in  a  very  short  sentence,  "  Not  what  I 
have,  but  what  I  do,  is  my  kingdom."  A.  H.  R. 

24.  This  intense  tenderness,  this  yearning  over  every- 
thing human,  with  a  pity  and  love  inexpressible,  made  the 
very  impulse  and  essence  of  her  being.     Surely  in  this  she 
was  Christlike.     Our  Saviour  wept  over  Jerusalem.     How 
many  tears  did  she,  his  disciple,  shed  for  sorrowing  human- 
ity, for  suffering  womanhood.     Nor  were   tears  all   she 
gave.    The  deepest  longing  of  her  life  was  to  see  human 
nature  lifted  from  sin  to  holiness,  from  misery  to  happiness  ; 
every  thought  that  she  uttered,  every  deed  she  did,  she 
prayed  might  help  toward  this  end.    To  help  somebody, 
no  matter  how  lowly,  to  comfort  the  afflicted,  to  lift  up  the 
fallen,  to  share  every  blessing  of  her  life  with  others,  to 
live  ( even  under  the  stress  of  pain  and  struggle )  a  life  pure 
large,  in  itself  an  inspiration  —  this,  and  more,  was  Alice 
Cary.  MARY  CLEMMER. 


APRIL.  69 

25.  Gather  a  single  blade  of  grass,  and  examine  for  a 
moment,  quietly,  its  narrow,  sword-shaped  strip  of  fluted 
green.    Think  of  it  well,  and  judge  whether,  of  all  the 
gorgeous  flowers  that  beam  in  summer   air,  and  of  all 
strong  and  goodly  trees,  pleasant  to  the  eyes  or  good  for 
food,  there  be  any  by  God  more  highly  graced,  by  man 
more  deeply  loved,  than  that  narrow  point  of  feeble  green. 
Consider  what  we  owe  to  the  meadow  grass,  to  the  cover- 
ing of  the  ground  by  that  glorious  enamel,  by  the  companies 
of  those  soft  and  countless  and  peaceful  spears. 

RUSKIN. 

26.  And  now,  I  will  give  you  one  lesson  to  carry  home 
with  you  —  a  lesson  which  if  we  all  could  really  believe 
and  obey,  the  world  would  begin  to  mend  from  to-morrow, 
and  every  other  good  work  on  earth  would  prosper  and 
multiply  tenfold,  a  hundredfold  —  ay,  beyond  all  our  fair- 
est dreams.     And  my  lesson  is  this.     When  you  go  out 
from  this  church  into  the  crowded  streets,  remember  there 
is  not  a  soul  in  them  who  is  not  as  precious  in  God's  eyes 
as  you  are ;   not  a  little  dirty  ragged  child  whom  Jesus, 
were  he  again  on  earth, would  not  take  up  in  his  arms  and 
bless,  not  a  publican  or  a  harlot  with  whom,  if  they  but 
asked  him,  he  would  not  eat  and  drink.    .    .    .    Therefore 
do  to  all  who  are  in  want  of  your  help  as  Jesus  would  do 
to  them  if  he  were  here ;  as  Jesus  is  doing  to  them  already ; 
for  he  is  here  among  us  now,  and  forever  seeking  and 
saving  that  which  was  lost ;   and  all  we  have  to  do  is  to 
believe  that,  and  work  on,  sure  that  he  is  working  at  our 
head,  and  that  though  we  cannot  see  him,  he  sees  us. 

CHARLES  KINGSLEY. 


70  APRIL. 

27.  Every  evening  it  was  a  fresh  excitement  to  watch 
the  lighting  of  the  lamps,  and  think  how  far  the  lighthouse 
sent  its  rays,  and  how  many  hearts  it  gladdened  with  as- 
surance of  safety.     As   I  grew  older,  I  was  allowed  to 
kindle  the  lamps  sometimes  myself.     That  was  indeed  a 
pleasure.     So  little  a  creature  as  I  might  do  that  much 
for  the  great  world !     We  waited  for  the  spring  with  an 
eager  longing  ;  the  advent  of  the  growing  grass,  the  birds 
and  flowers  and  insect  life,  the  soft  skies  and  softer  winds 
the  everlasting  beauty  of  the  thousand  tender  tints  that 
clothed  the  world, —  these  things  brought  us  unspeakable 
bliss.    To  the  heart  of  Nature  one  must  needs  be  drawn 
in  such  a  life;   and  very  soon  I  learned  how  richly  she 
repays  in  deep  refreshment  the  reverent  love  of  her  wor- 
shipper. CELIA  THAXTER. 

28.  You  should  be  careful  not  to  intrust  another  unnec- 
essarily with  a  secret  which  it  may  be  a  hard  matter  for 
him  to  keep,  and  which  may  expose  him  to  somebody's 
displeasure,  when  it  is  hereafter  discovered  that  he  was 
the  object  of  your  confidence.     Your  desire  for  aid,  or  for 
sympathy,  is  not  to  be  indulged  by  dragging  other  people 
into  your  misfortunes. 

There  is  as  much  responsibility  in  imparting  your  own 
secrets,  as  in  keeping  those  of  your  neighbor. 

ARTHUR  HELPS. 

Avoid  having  many  confidants.  Avoid  absorbing  and 
exclusive  friendships.  They  are  not  wise  ;  they  are  selfish, 
and  not  of  the  nature  of  true  friendship.  They  commonly 
breed  trouble,  and  end  in  quarrel  and  heart  break. 

THEODORE  T.  HUNGER. 


APRIL.  7 1 

29.  The  foul  toad  hath  a  fair  stone  in  his  head ;   the 
fine  gold  is  found  in  the  filthy  earth ;   the  sweet  kernel 
lyeth  in  the  hard  shell ;  virtue  is  harbored  in  the  heart  of 
him  that  most  men  esteem  misshapen.     If  we  respect  more 
the  outward  shape  than  the  inward  habit,  into  how  many 
mischiefs  do  we  fall,  into  what  blindness  are  we  led  !     Do 
we  not  commonly  see  that  in  painted  pots  is  hidden  the 
deadliest  poison,  that  in  the  greenest  grass  is  the  greatest 
serpent  ?     How  frantic  are  those  lovers  who  are  carried 
away  with  the  gay  glistening  of  the  fine  face,  the  beauty 
whereof  is  parched  with  the  summer's  blaze,  and  chipped 
with  the  winter's  blast,  which  is  of  so  short  continuance 
that  it  fadeth  before  one  perceives  it  flourisheth. 

LYLY'S  "  EUPHUES." 

30.  Patience,  accomplish  thy  labor;    accomplish   thy 
work  of  affection ! 

Sorrow  and  silence  are  strong,  and  patient  endurance  is 

godlike. 
Therefore  accomplish  thy  labor  of  love,  till  the  heart  is 

made  godlike, 
Purified,   strengthened,   perfected,    and    rendered    more 

worthy  of  heaven.  LONGFELLOW. 


MAY. 

1.  The  clear  pure  light  of  the  morning  made  me  long 
for  the  truth  in  my  heart,  which  alone  could  make  me  pure 
and  clear  as  the  morning,  tune  me  up  to  the  concert-pitch 
of  the  nature  around  me.     And  the  wind  that  blew  from 
the  sunrise  made  me  hope  in  the  God  who  had  first  breathed 
into  my  nostrils  the  breath  of  life ;   that  He  would  at  length 
so  fill  me  with   His  breath,  His  mind,  His  spirit,  that  I 
should  think  only  His  thoughts,  and  live  His  life,  finding 
therein  my  own  life,  only  glorified  infinitely. 

GEORGE  MACDONALD. 

The  face  of  Nature  is  the  face  of  God,  and  must  bear 
expressions  that  can  influence,  though  unconsciously  to 
them,  the  most  ignorant  and  hopeless  of  His  children. 

GEORGE  MACDONALD. 

2.  Maiden,  that  read'st  this  simple  rhyme, 

Enjoy  thy  youth,  it  will  not  stay; 
Enjoy  the  fragrance  of  thy  prime, 
For  oh,  it  is  not  always  May  ! 

Enjoy  the  Spring  of  Love  and  Youth, 
To  some  good  angel  leave  the  rest ; 

For  Time  will  teach  thee  soon  the  truth, 
There  are  no  birds  in  last  year's  nest ! 

LONGFELLOW. 

God's  hand  is  on  thee,  O  my  child ;  God's  grace 
Go  with  thee  — 

ELIZABETH  STUART  PHELPS. 
72 


MAY.  73 

3.  I  stand  in  the  sunny  noon  of  life.     Objects  no  longer 
glitter  in  the  dews  of  morning,  neither  are  yet  softened  by 
the  shadows  of  evening.     Every  spot  is  seen,  every  chasm 
revealed.     Climbing  the  dusty  hill,  some  fair  effigies  that 
once  stood  for  human  destiny  have  been  broken.     Yet 
enough  is  left  to  point  distinctly  to  the  glories  of  that  destiny. 

Always  the  soul  says  to  us  all,  "Cherish  your  best  hopes 
as  a  faith,  and  abide  by  them  in  action.  .  .  .  Such 
shall  be  the  effectual,  fervent  means  to  their  fulfilment." 

MARGARET  FULLER. 

4.  A  woman  has  a  personal  work  and  duty,  relating  to 
her  own  home,  and  a  public  work  and  duty,  which  is  also 
the  expansion  of  that.     The  woman's  work  for  her  own 
home  is  to  secure  its  order,  comfort,  and  loveliness.     The 
woman's  duty,  as  a  member  of  the  commonwealth,  is  to  as- 
sist in  the  ordering,  in  the  comforting,  and  in  the  beautiful 
adornment  of  the  state.     What  the  woman  is  to  be  within 
her  gates,  as  the  centre  of  order,  the  balm  of  distress,  and 
the  mirror  of  beauty ;   that  she  is  also  to  be  without  her 
gates,  where  order  is  more  difficult,  distress  more  immi- 
nent, and  loveliness  more  rare.  RUSKIN. 

O  birds  through  the  heaven  that  soar 
With  such  tumult  of  jubilant  song  ! 

The  shadows  are  flying  before 
For  the  rapture  of  life  is  strong. 

And  my  spirit  leaps  to  the  light 
On  the  wings  of  its  hope  new  born, 

And  I  follow  your  radiant  flight 
Through  the  golden  halls  of  morn  ! 

CELIA  THAXTER. 


74  MAY. 

5.  Yon    bells    in    the  steeples,   ring,   ring    out    your 
changes, 

However  so  many  they  be, 

And  let  the  brown  meadow-lark's  note  as  he  ranges 
Come  over,  come  over  to  me. 

I  wish,  and  I  wish  that  the  spring  would  go  faster, 

Nor  long  summer  bide  so  late  ; 
And  I  could  grow  on  like  the  foxglove  and  aster, 

For  some  things  are  ill  to  wait. 

I  wait  for  the  day  when  dear  hearts  shall  discover, 
While  dear  hands  are  laid  on  my  head ; 

"  The  child  is  a  woman,  the  book  may  close  over, 
For  all  the  lessons  are  said." 

I  wait  for  my  story  —  the  birds  cannot  sing  it, 

Hot  one,  as  he  sits  on  the  tree ; 
The  bells  cannot  ring  it,  but  long  years,  O  bring  it ! 

Such  as  I  wish  it  to  be.  JEAN  INGELOW. 

6.  This,  then,  is  the  sum  of  all.     Circumstances  are  not 
in  our  power  ;   virtues  are.     It  is  not  in  our  power  to  avert 
the  bitter  failure  which  the  earth  may  inflict ;   it  is  in  our 
power  to  win  the  high  success  which  God  bestows.     The 
young  lions  do  lack,  and  suffer  hunger  ;  but  they  that  seek 
the  Lord  shall  want  no  manner  of  thing ;   certainly,  which 
is  eternally,  infinitely  good.     No  man  is  a  failure  who  is 
faithful  and  upright;   no  cause  is  a  failure  which  is  just 
and  true. 

There  is  but  one  failure ;  and  that  is,  not  to  be  true  to 
the  best  one  knows.  To  us  and  to  our  race,  there  is  but 
one  failure,  and  that  is  sin.  CANON  FARRAR. 


MAY.  75 

7.  "  Nothin*  like  green  grass  and  woodsy  smells  to 
right  folks  up.  When  I  was  a  gal,  if  I  got  riled  in  my 
temper  or  low  in  my  mind,  I  just  went  out  and  grubbed  in 
the  garclin,  or  made  hay,  or  walked  a  good  piece,  and  it 
fetched  me  round  beautiful.  Never  failed  ;  so  I  came  to 
see  that  good  fresh  dirt  is  fust-rate  physic  for  folks'  spirits 
as  it  is  for  mounds,  as  they  tell  on." 

LOUISA  M.  ALCOTT. 

Take  Nature  for  your  friend  and  teacher.  You  love 
and  feel  near  to  her  already ;  you  will  find  her  always  just 
and  genial,  patient  and  wise.  Watch  the  harmonious  laws 
that  rule  her  ;  imitate  her  industry,  her  sweet  sanity ;  and 
soon  I  think  you  will  find  that  this  benignant  mother  will 
take  you  in  her  arms  and  show  you  God. 

LOUISA  M.  ALCOTT. 

8.  The  loom  of  life  turns  out  many  different  fabrics. 
Is  the  beauty  that  you  seek  the  gossamer  of  a  day  or  the 
royal  purple  of  a  century  ?  Beauty  of  manner,  tender  con- 
siderateness,  reverence,  and  equipoise  will  make  it  impos- 
sible for  you  ever  to  be  desolate,  and  will  insure  your 
always  being  loved.  No  physical  defect,  however  irreme- 
diable, bars  you  from  this  choicest  of  all  exterior  attractions. 
Beauty  of  utterance  has  a  fadeless  charm  ;  opens  all  hearts 
whose  key  it  is  worth  while  to  wish  for ;  and  makes  those 
once  obscure,  the  favorites  of  fortune,  the  heroes  of  soci- 
ety, the  peers  of  kings.  Burns  was  a  Highland  peasant, 
but  the  magic  of  his  song  made  him  the  idol  of  a  nation ; 
and  winsomeness  of  speech  will  always  win  whether  upon 
the  world's  great  stage  or  in  the  more  sheltered  home  life. 

FRANCES  E.  WTILLARD. 


76  MAY. 

9.  The  one  thing  a  girl  owes  to  the  world,  to  herself,  to 
her  Maker,  is  a  reverence  for  her  own  sex.     Girls,  I  repeat, 
you  cannot  sufficiently  realize  your  obligations  to  your  own 
kind.     Because  you  are  girls,  and  not  boys,  women  and  not 
men,  oh,  try  to  be  loyal  to  girls  and  women  !     Pay  homage 
to  womankind ;   adorn  it,  place  sacrifices  upon  its  altars, 
rejoice  in  unceasing  service  to  it,  exalt  it  by  every  worthy 
endeavor  !    What  can  be  more  beautiful  than  womanliness  ! 
The  next  time  you  see  the  Sistine  Madonna,  look  behind 
all  the  mother  in  the  lovely  face  for  the  woman  in  it.     Then 
see  if  you  do  not  remark  the  same  in  Raphael's  St.  Cecilia, 
and  in  the  Venus  de  Milo.     Wherever  masters  have  suc- 
ceeded in  painting  the  Virgin,  notice,  aside  from  the  holy 
look  —  if  it  is  aside  from  that  —  the  womanly  look. 

A.  H.  R. 

10.  Flowers  spring  to  blossom  where  she  walks 

The  careful  ways  of  duty ; 
Our  hard,  stiff  lines  of  life  with  her 
Are  flowing  curves  of  beauty. 

Our  homes  are  cheerier  for  her  sake, 

Our  door-yards  brighter  blooming, 
And  all  about  the  social  air 

Is  sweeter  for  her  coming. 


And  never  tenderer  hand  than  hers 

Unknits  the  brow  of  ailing ; 
Her  garments,  to  the  sick  man's  ear 

Have  music  in  their  trailing.  WHITTIER. 


MAY.  77 

11.  The  instinct  of  self-control,  of  gentleness,  of  con- 
sideration and  forethought  and  quick  sympathy,  which  go 
to  make  up  what  we  call  good  breeding ;   the  absence  of 
noise  and  hurry,  the  thousand  and  one  little  ways  by  which 
we  can  please  people,  or  avoid  displeasing  them, —  are  all 
taught  us  by  our  own  hearts.    Good  manners  are  the  fine 
flower  of  civilization.     And  everybody  can  have  them.     I 
always  say  that  one  of  the  best-bred  men  of  my  acquaint- 
ance is  Mr.  Jarvis,  the  mason.     I  have  known  him  come 
up  out  of  a  cistern  to  speak  to  me,  dressed  in  overalls  and 
a  flannel  shirt ;  and  his  bow  and   his  manner  and   the 
politeness  of  his  address  would  have  done  credit  to  any 
gentleman  in  the  world.  SUSAN  COOLIDGE. 

12.  That  happy  union  of  frankness  and  reserve  which 
is  to  be  desired  comes  not  by  studying  rules,  either  for 
candor  or  for  caution.     It  results  chiefly  from  an  upright- 
ness of  purpose,  enlightened  by  a  profound  and  delicate 
care  for  the  feelings  of  others.     This  will  go  very  far  in 
teaching  us  what  to  confide,  and  what  to  conceal,  in  our 
own  affairs  ;   what  to  repeat,  and  what  to  suppress,  in  those 
of  other  peeple.     The  stone  in  which  nothing  is  seen,  and 
the  polished  metal  which  reflects  all  things,  are  both  alike 
hard  and  insensible.  ARTHUR  HELPS. 

Cultivate  the  friendly  spirit.  If  one  would  have  friends 
he  must  be  worthy  of  them.  Make  friends  early  in  life. 
Hold  fast  to  your  friends.  It  is  one  of  the  commonest 
regrets  in  after  life  that  early  friendships  were  not  kept 
up.  Make  a  point  of  having  friends  amongst  your  elders. 
Friendship  between  those  of  the  same  age  is  sweeter,  but 
friendship  with  elders  is  more  useful,  or,  rather,  they  sup- 
plement each  other.  THEODORE  T.  MUNGER. 


78  MAY. 

13.  Such  a  starved  bank  of  moss 

Till,  that  May-morn, 
Blue  ran  the  flash  across : 

Violets  were  born !  ROBERT  BROWNING. 
If  one  should  give  me  a  dish  of  sand,  and  tell  me 
there  were  particles  of  iron  in  it,  I  might  look  for  them 
with  my  eyes,  and  search  for  them  with  my  clumsy  fingers, 
and  be  unable  to  detect  them  ;  but  let  me  take  a  magnet 
and  sweep  through  it,  and  how  would  it  draw  to  itself  the 
almost  invisible  particles  by  the  mere  power  of  attraction  ! 
The  unthankful  heart,  like  my  finger  in  the  sand,  discovers 
no  mercies  ;  but  let  the  thankful  heart  sweep  through  the 
day,  and,  as  the  magnet  finds  the  iron,  so  it  will  find  in 
every  hour  some  heavenly  blessings  —  only,  the  iron  in 
God's  sand  is  gold.  HOLMES. 

14.  Even  if  our  work  is  spoilt  as  we  near  its  completion, 
and,  instead  of  gain,  failure  awaits  us,  we  have  still  been 
winners  in  ourselves,  because  we  have  acquired  habits  of 
industry,  have  made  our  powers  of  perseverance  stronger, 
and  have  developed  physical  or  moral  strength  as  well. 
Work  is  never  lost.     When  Carlyle  sat  down  to  write  his 
"  French  Revolution  "  the  second  time  —  a  careless  servant 
having  burnt  his  manuscript  —  he  was  a  nobler  man  than 
when  he  wrote  out  the  first  issue.     When  Walter  Scott 
failed,  and  Abbotsford  was  encumbered  with  a  large  debt, 
when  his  dream  of  restoring  a  kind  of  baronial  life  was  all 
shattered,  he  did  a  grander  work  than  in  the  building  of 
that  magnificent  estate ;   for  he  strove  with  all  the  powers 
of  his  mind  to  earn  the  money  which  should  repay  his 
creditors.    Though  he  died  in  the  struggle,  it  was  not 
fought  in  vain.  A.  H.  R. 


MAY.  79 

15.  All  common  things,  each  day's  events, 

That  with  the  hour  begin  and  end, 
Our  pleasures  and  our  discontents, 
Are  rounds  by  which  we  may  ascend. 

We  have  not  wings,  we  cannot  soar, 

But  we  have  feet  to  scale  and  climb, 
By  slow  degrees,  by  more  and  more, 
The  cloudy  summits  of  our  time. 

LONGFELLOW. 

And  wherever  a  true  wife  comes,  this  home  is  always 
round  her.  The  stars  only  may  be  over  her  head ;  the 
glow-worm  in  the  night-cold  grass  may  be  the  only  fire  at 
her  foot :  but  home  is  yet  wherever  she  is ;  and  for  a  noble 
woman  it  stretches  far  round  her,  better  than  ceiled  with 
cedar,  or  painted  with  vermilion,  shedding  its  quiet  light 
far,  for  those  who  else  were  homeless.  RUSKIN. 

1 6.  I  envy  the  good  fortune  of  all  walkers,  and  feel  like 
joining  myself  to  every  tramp  that  comes  along.     I  am 
jealous  of  the  clergyman  I  read  about  the  other  day  who 
footed  it  from  Edinburgh  to  London,  as  poor  Effie  Deans 
did,  carrying  her  shoes  in  her  hand  most  of  the  way,  and 
over  the  ground  that  rugged  Ben  Jonson  strode,  larking 
it  to  Scotland,  so  long  ago.     ...     It  would  have  been 
a  good  draught  of  the  rugged  cup  to  have  walked  with 
Wilson  the    ornithologist,  deserted   by  his   companions, 
from  Niagara  to  Philadelphia  through  the  snows  of  winter. 
I  almost  wish  that  I  had  been  born  to  the  career  of  a  Ger- 
man mechanic,  that  I  might  have  had  that  delicious  adven- 
turous year  of  wandering  over  my  country  before  I  settled 
down  to  work.    .    .     .  JOHN  BURROUGHS. 


8o  MAY. 

17.  O,  the  blossoms  !     All  the  world's  a  paradise  now. 
It  is  high  carnival  out  in  the  orchard,  yes,  and  down  among 
the  meadow  grasses  too.     The  birds  are  the  gladdest  spec- 
tators, but  the  robins  are  the  gayest  of  them  all.    Just 
think  of  a  home  all  shielded  and  perfumed,  all  built  and 
closed  in  with  apple-blossoms  !     And  right  in  the  midst  of 
it,  tuning  his  notes  in  harmony  with  the  fluttering  pink 
and  white  petals,  sits  a  young  robin  boldly  beseeching  his 
newly  found  neighbor,  who  lives  in  sweet  expectancy  just 
over  the  branch  :  — 

"  Come  to  my  nest  o'  down, 

Lady-bird  o'  mine, 
Come  in  your  russet  gown  — 

Don't  you  be  too  fine  !  "  A.  H.  R. 

18.  In  the  first  place,  then,  let  us  watch  our  course 
when  we  are  entertaining  strangers  whose  good  opinion 
we  wish  to  propitiate.      We  dress  ourselves  with  care,  we 
study  what  it  will  be  agreeable  to  say,  we  do  not  suffer 
our  natural  laziness  to  prevent  our  being  very  alert  in  pay- 
ing small  attentions,  we  start  across  the  room  for  an  easier 
chair,  we  stoop  to  pick  up  the  fan,  we  search  for  the  mis- 
laid newspaper,  and  all  this  for  persons  in  whom  we  have 
no  particular  interest  beyond  the  passing  hour ;  while  with 
those  friends  whom  we  love  and  respect  we  too  often  sit 
in  our  old  faded  habiliments,  and  let  them  get  their  own 
chair,  and  look  up  their  own  newspaper,  and  fight  their 
own  way  daily,  without  any  of  this  preventing  care. 

HARRIET  BEECHER  STOWE. 

She  doeth  little  kindnesses  which  most  leave  undone,  or 
despise.  LOWELL. 


MAY.  8 1 

19.  Over  the  hedge  I  leaned  one  day 
To  see  my  darling  as  she  lay 

On  the  May  grass,  —  it  was  not  fair, 
I  know,  in  me  to  see  her  there. 

The  smile  could  only  just  get  through 
The  mouth  which  she  together  drew, 
That  tender  secret  to  repress 
Which  tells  itself  by  silentness. 

She  did  not  raise  her  eyes  above 
The  hedge,  to  chide  my  look  of  love, 
Such  fancies  did  about  her  close, 
Like  sunbeams  feeding  on  a  rose. 

My  passion  to  sad  verse  I  set, 
( I  had  not  got  my  beard  as  yet. ) 
And  she  my  worship  did  not  wrong,  — 
The  hedge  was  not  between  us  long. 
" Mono,  Fifteen"  ALICE  GARY. 

20.  Do  not  waste  a  minute,  not  a  second,  in  trying  to 
demonstrate  to  others  the  merit  of  your  own  performance. 
If  your  work  does  not  vindicate  itself,  you  cannot  vindicate 
it,  but  you  can  labor  steadily  on  to  something  which  needs 
no  advocate  but  itself.     .     .     .     Toughen  yourself  a  little 
and  accomplish  something  better.     Inscribe  above  your 
desk  the  words  of  Rivarol, "  Genius  is  only  great  patience." 
It  was  Keats,  the  most  precocious  of  all  great  poets,  who 
declared  that  "  nothing  is  finer  for  purposes  of  production 
than  a  very  gradual  ripening  of  the  intellectual  powers." 

T.  W.  HIGGINSON. 


82  MAY. 

21.  All  honor  and  reverence  to  the  divine  beauty  of 
form  !     Let  us  cultivate  it  to  the  utmost  in  men,  women, 
and  children,  —  in  our  gardens  and  in  our  houses.     But 
let  us  love  that  other  beauty  too,  which  lies  in  no  secret 
of  proportion,  but  in  the  secret  of  deep  human  smypathy. 
Paint  us  an  angel,  if   you  can,  with  a  floating  violet  robe, 
and  a  face  paled  by  the  celestial  light ;  paint  us  yet  oftener 
a  Madonna,  turning  her  mild  face  upward  and  opening 
her  arms  to  welcome  the  divine  glory ;  but  do  not  impose 
on  us  any  aesthetic  rules  which  shall  banish  from  the  region 
of  Art  those  old  women  scraping  carrots  with  their  work- 
worn  hands,  those  heavy  clowns  taking  holiday  in  a  dingy 
pot-house,  those  rounded  backs  and  stupid  weather-beaten 
faces  that  have  bent  over  the  spade  and  done  the  rough 
work  of  the  world,  —  those  homes  with  their  tin  pans,  their 
brown   pitchers,  their  rough  curs,  and  their  clusters  of 
onions.  GEORGE  ELIOT. 

22.  If  you  have  any  trouble  which  seems  intolerable, 
pray.     .     .     .     These  implacable  demons  turn  to  smiling 
angels  when  we  cast  our  care  on  God,  and  surrender  our 
will  to  His  will.  JAMES  F.  CLARKE. 

To  Him  nothing  is  insignificant  which  moves  the  hearts 
of  His  children.  JAMES  F.  CLARKE. 

Let  no  man  call  himself  a  Christian  who  lives  without 
giving  a  part  of  his  life  to  this  duty.  .  .  .  Let  our 
prayers,  like  the  ancient  sacrifices,  ascend  morning  and 
evening.  Let  our  days  begin  and  end  with  God. 

CHANNING. 

"  Do  my  best  all  round  :  keep  good  company,  read  good 
books,  love  good  things,  and  cultivate  soul  and  body  as 
faithfully  and  wisely  as  I  can."  LOUISA  M.  ALCOTT. 


MAY.  83 

23.  Do  not  expect  to  escape  criticism,  girls.     If  you 
should  go  to  dwell  in  the  midst  of  a  desert  or  to  take  up 
your  abode  on  the  top  of  a  lonely  mountain,  some  one 
would  follow  and  pass  judgment  on  the  shape  of  your  hat 
or  the  shape  of  your  conduct.     So  try  to  accept  honest 
criticism  when  it  is  given  you  openly,  face  to  face  ;  but 
scorn  with  silent  derision  the  cowardly  thing  that  crawls 
up  over  the  wall  and  tries  to  bite  you  in  the  back. 

A.  H.  R. 

24.  For  thee  the  sun  shines  and  the  earth  rejoices 

In  fragrance,  music,  light ; 

The  spring-time  wooes  thee  with  a  thousand  voices, 
For  thee  her  flowers  are  bright ; 

Youth    crowns   thee,   and    love    waits    upon    thy 

splendor, 

Trembling  beneath  thine  eyes  ; 
The  morning  sky  is  yet  serene  and  tender, 
Thy  life  before  thee  lies. 

CELIA  THAXTER. 

Gather,  then,  each  flower  that  grows, 
When  the  young  heart  overflows, 
To  embalm  that  tent  of  snows. 

Bear  a  lily  in  thy  hand  ; 

Gates  of  brass  cannot  withstand 

One  touch  of  that  magic  wand. 

Bear  through  sorrow,  wrong,  and  ruth, 

In  thy  heart  the  dew  of  youth, 

On  thy  lips  the  smile  of  truth.        LONGFELLOW. 


84  MAY. 

25.  Knitting  at  her  mother's  door, 
Underneath  a  sycamore, 

That  did  long,  white  arms  extend 

Round  about  her,  like  a  friend, 

Saw  I  maiden  Mona  next. 

She  was  now  become  the  text 

Of  my  dreams,  my  thoughts,  my  life,  — 

Would  she,  could  she  be  my  wife  ? 

Rows  of  pinks  on  either  side, 
With  their  red  mouths  open  wide, 
And  the  quail,  with  tawny  breast 
Swelling  out  above  her  nest, 
And  the  lily's  speckled  head 
Shining  o'er  the  spearmint  bed ; 
All  were  fair,  but  more  than  fair 
Maiden  Mona,  knitting  there. 

26.  Round  her  eyes  the  hair  fell  down,  — 
Sunshine  on  a  leafy  brown,  — 

And  her  simple  rustic  dress 
Witched  my  worldly  eyes,  I  guess. 

Something  sacred  did  divide  her 
From  me,  when  I  stood  beside  her : 
^1  was  born  to  house  and  land,  — 
She  had  but  her  heart  and  hand, — 
Yet  she  seemed  so  high  above 
The  aspiring  of  my  love, 
That  I  stood  in  bashful  shame, 
Trembling  just  to  speak  her  name. 
*  Mona  Knitting?  ALICE  GARY. 


MAY.  85 

27.       Where  Cinderella  dropped  her  shoe, 

'Tis  said  in  fairy  tales  of  yore, 
'Twas  first  the  lady's  slipper  grew, 
And  there  its  rosy  blossom  bore. 

And  ever  since  in  woodlands  grey, 
It  marks  where  spring  retreating  flew, 

Where  speeding  on  her  eager  way, 
She  left  behind  her  dainty  shoe. 

ELAINE  GOODALE. 

28.  No  book  is  worth  anything  which  is  not  worth 
much,  nor  is  it  serviceable,  until  it  has  been  read,  and 
re-read,  and  loved,  and  loved  again ;  and  marked  so  that 
you  can  refer  to  the  passages  you  want  in  it,  as  a  soldier 
can  seize  the  weapon  he  needs  in  an  armory. 

RUSKIN. 

One  is  sometimes  asked  by  young  people  to  recommend 
a  course  of  reading.  My  advice  would  be  that  they  should 
confine  themselves  to  the  supreme  books  in  whatever  liter- 
ature, or,  still  better,  to  choose  some  one  great  author,  and 
make  themselves  thoroughly  familiar  with  him.  For  as 
all  roads  lead  to  Rome,  so  do  they  likewise  lead  awayirom 
it ;  and  you  will  find  that,  in  order  to  understand  perfectly 
and  weigh  exactly  any  vital  piece  of  literature,  you  will  be 
gradually  and  pleasantly  persuaded  to  excursions  and  ex- 
plorations of  which  you  little  dreamed  when  you  began, 
and  will  find  yourselves  scholars  before  you  are  aware. 

LOWELL. 

The  true  university  of  these  days  is  a  collection  of 
books.  CARLYLE. 


86  MAY. 

29.  To  examine  its  evidence  is  not  to  try  Christianity ; 
to  admire  its  martyrs  is  not  to  try  Christianity ;  to  com- 
pare and  estimate  its  teachers  is  not  to  try  Christianity ; 
to  attend  its  rites  and  services  with  more  than  Mahometan 
punctuality  is  not  to  try  or  know  Christianity.     But  for 
one  week,  for  one  day,  to  have  lived  in  the  pure  atmos- 
phere of  faith  and  love  to  God,  of  tenderness  to  man  ;  to 
have  beheld  earth  annihilated,  and  heaven  opened  to  the 
prophetic  gaze  of  hope  ;  to  have  seen  evermore  revealed 
behind  the  complicated  troubles  of  this  strange,  mysterious 
life,  the  unchanged  smile  of  an  eternal  Friend,  and  every- 
thing that  is  difficult  to  reason   solved  by  that  reposing 
trust  which  is  higher  and  better  than  reason,  —  to  have 
known  and  felt  this,  I  will  not  say  for  a  life,  but  for  a  sin- 
gle blessed  hour,  that,  indeed,  is  to  have  made  experiment 
of  Christianity.  WILLIAM  ARCHER  BUTLER. 

30.  All  her  life  Madame  Roland  had  loved  this  people, 
even  with  the  love  of  a  mother  for  her  first  born.     All  her 
life  she  had  been  ready  to  shed  her  blood  for  it,  in  the 
conviction  that  a  new  generation  would  arise  which  should 
live  to  enjoy  the  freedom  for  which  she  was  content  to 
perish.     That  conviction  made  her  passage  to  the  scaffold 
a  triumphal  path,  and  invested  her,  as  she  stood  in  the 
death-cart,  with  a  splendor  as  of  victory.     Like  "  a  Star 
above  the  Storm  "  the  beautiful  woman,  serenely  radiant, 
in  pure  white  raiment,  with  long  dark  locks  falling  in  clus- 
ters to  her  girdle,  passed  through  the  streets  of  the  blood- 
stained city,  an  embodiment  of  all  that  was  highest  and 
purest  in  the  Revolution  whose  star  was  now  quenched  in 
the  weltering  storm.  MATHILDE  BLIND. 


MAY.  87 

31.  I  suppose  that  eye  and  touch  and  feeling  are  all 
educated,  by  the  commonest  teasing  little  everyday  things  ; 
the  trying  to  fit  things  and  lay  them  straight ;  the  making 
of  beds ;  the  setting  of  tables. 

MRS.  A.  D.  T.  WHITNEY. 

If  Rose  had  ever  felt  that  the  gift  of  living  for  others 
was  a  poor  one,  she  saw  now  how  beautiful  and  blest  it 
was,  —  how  rich  the  returns,  how  wide  the  influence,  how 
much  more  precious  the  tender  tie  which  knit  so  many 
hearts  together,  than  any  breath  of  fame,  or  brilliant  talent, 
that  dazzled,  but  did  not  win  and  warm. 

LOUISA  M.  ALCOTT. 
Companions  sweet, 

Why  do  you  weep, 
And  where  is  cause  for  sorrow  ? 
"  Alas,  the  May 
Goes  out  to-day  ;  —  " 
But  June  comes  in  to-morrow  ! 

ELAINE  GOODALE. 


JUNE. 

1.  Hark,  how  sweet  the  thrushes  sing! 

Hark,  how  clear  the  robins  call  I 
Chorus  of  the  happy  spring, 
Summer's  madrigal ! 

Flood  the  world  with  joy  and  cheer, 
O  ye  birds,  and  pour  your  song 

Till  the  farthest  distance  hear 
Notes  so  glad  and  strong  ! 

Storm  the  earth  with  odors  sweet, 
O  ye  flowers,  that  blaze  in  light ! 

Crowd  about  June's  shining  feet, 
All  ye  blossoms  bright. 

Shout,  ye  waters,  to  the  sun ! 

Back  are  winter's  fetters  hurled  ; 
Summer's  glory  is  begun  ; 

Beauty  holds  the  world  ! 

CELIA  THAXTER. 

2.  This  is  the  true  nature  of  home  —  it  is  the  place  of 
peace;  the  shelter,  not  only  from  all  injury,  but  from  all 

terror,  doubt,  and  division So  far  as  it  is  a 

sacred   place,  a  vestal   temple,  a  temple   of  the  hearth 
watched   over  by  Household   Gods,  before  whose   faces 
none  may  come  but  those  whom  they  can  receive  with 
love, —  so  far  as  it  is  this,  and  roof  and  fire  are  types  only 
of  a  nobler  shade  and  light, —  shade  as  of  the  rock  in  a 
weary  land,  and  light  as  of  the  Pharos  in  the  stormy  sea ; 
—  so  far  it  vindicates  the  same,  and  fulfils  the  praise,  of 
home.  RUSKIN. 

88 


JUNE.  89 

3.  I  do  not  ask  you  to  be  anything  but  a  glad,  sunny 
woman.     I  would  have  no  counsels  of  mine  recommended 
by  long  faces  and  formal  behavior.      I  would  have  you  so 
at  peace  with  Heaven,  with  the  world  and  with  yourself, 
that  tears  shall  flow  only  at  the  call  of  sympathy.     I  would 
have  you  immaculate  as  light,  devoted  to  all  good  deeds, 
industrious,  intelligent,  patient,  heroic.      And   crowning 
every  grace  of  person  and  mind,  every  accomplishment, 
every  noble  sentiment,  every  womanly  faculty,  every  deli- 
cate instinct,  every  true  impulse,  I  would  see  religion  upon 
your  brow,  the  coronet  by  token  of  which  God  makes  you 
a  princess  in  his  family,  and  an  heir  to  the  brightest  glo- 
ries, the  sweetest  pleasures,  the  noblest  privileges,  and  the 
highest  honors  of  his  kingdom.        TIMOTHY  TITCOMB. 

4.  Oh,  do  not  think  it  necessary  to  behold  Nature  in 
her  great  stretches  of  sublimity  in  order  to  appreciate  her. 
You  will  come  to  know  her  far  more  easily,  and  much 
more  helpfully,  in  a  little  woodside  walk,  or  right  here 
underneath  these  branches,  than  you  will  in  Niagara  Falls, 
or  in  looking  at  her  in  the  great  ocean.     We  should  re- 
member, too,  that  not  only  the  glow  of  autumn  and  the 
flush  of  summer  are  beautiful,  but  that  every  season,  every 
climate,  every  aspect  in  the  shifting  panorama  of  Nature, 
has  real  beauty.     Our  own  region,  be  it  arid  with  parching 
suns,  or  wet  with  frequent  rains ;  be  it  always  winter  there, 
or  always  summer,  is  full  of  charm.  A.  H.  R. 

"  For  one  year,"  said  Ramona,  "  I  should  lie  and  look 
up  at  the  sky,  my  Allessandro,  and  do  nothing  else.  It 
hardly  seems  as  if  it  would  be  a  sin  to  do  nothing  for  a 
year,  if  one  gazed  steadily  at  the  sky  all  the  while." 

HELEN  HUNT  JACKSON. 


90  JUNE. 

5.  And  we  can  have  this  deepest  life  by  beginning  to 
live  for   God.     Curb  your   passions.      Begin   from   this 
moment  to  listen  to  the  inward  voice.     Consecrate  your 
heart.     Meditate  upon  the  Infinite  as  the  holiest  and  best, 
set  forth  in  the  stars  not  so  clearly  as  in  the  heart  of 
Christ.     Education  is  no  more  certain  to  bring  knowledge 
than  the  humble  obedience  to  these  conditions  is  sure  to 
bring  the  diviner  life.     The  best  things  are  sure.     Toil 
may  not  bring  money.     Carefulness  may  not  protect  health. 
Study  may  not  banish  error.     The  utmost  art  cannot  keep 
off  the  final  sickness  and  the  call  of  death.     But  the  Divine 
life  is  possible  to  every  one  of  us.     "  God  may  be  had  for 
the  asking."  T.  STARR  KING. 

6.  Her  language  is  so  sweet  and  fit 
You  never  have  enough  of  it. 

If  she  smiles,  the  house  is  bright 
Without  any  candle-light. 
Whether  that  her  hair  is  rolled 
Round  an  ivory  comb,  or  gold, 
Pinned  or  no,  I  cannot  tell, 
In  itself  it  shines  so  well. 
Whether  she  doth  wear  her  coat 
Loose,  or  buttoned  to  the  throat, 
Hems  or  ruffles,  plain  or  gay, 
Seems  to  me  the  sweetest  way. 

By  her  innocence  she  awes 
Evil  from  her ;  through  love's  laws, 
That  so  bind  us  like  a  cord, 
Each  to  all,  she  seeks  the  Lord. 
Mona  Perfect.  ALICE  CARY. 


JUNE.  91 

7.  What  gigantic  plans  we  scheme,  and  how  little  we 
advance  in  the  labor  of  a  day !     If  there  is  one  lesson 
which  experience  teaches,  surely  it  is  this,  to  make  plans 
that  are  strictly  limited,  and  to  arrange  our  work  in  a  prac- 
ticable  way   within    the   limits   which   we    must   accept. 
Others  expect  so  much  from  us  that  it  seems  as  if  we  had 
accomplished   nothing.      "  What !    have   you   done   only 
that?  "  they  say,  or  we  know  by  their  looks  that  they  are 
thinking  it.  HAMERTON. 

'Tis  but  beating  one's  wings  against  the  invisible  to  seek 
to  know  even  to-morrow.  WILLIAM  BLACK. 

8.  The  illuminated  hours  of  life  are  few ;   but  those  of 
our  first  youth  have  a   piercing   splendor  which  neither 
earlier  nor  later   experience  can  by  any  chance  absorb. 
Avis  was  perhaps  sixteen,  when  one  of  these  phosphores- 
cent hours  flashed  upon  her.     .     .     .     She  was  down  in 
her  father's   apple-orchard,   where   the   low,   outskirting 
branches  yield  the  outlook  to  the  sea.     The  stalks  of  the 
young  corn  turned  their  edges  in  profile  towards  the  sun ; 
and  the  short  silk  hung  like  the  hair  of  babies,  tangled  and 
falling.     In  the  meadow  the  long  grass  rioted  ;  and  black 
and  brown  and  yellow  bees  made  love  to  crimson  clovers. 
How  they  blushed !     She  should  think  they  would.     They 
were  too  lavish  of  their  honey,  those  buxom  clovers,  like 
an  untaught  country  lassie  with  a  kiss.     But  the  daisies 
that   skirted   the   old  gray  stone  walls, —  the  slim  white 
daisies  with   the   golden   hearts, —  looked   to   the   young 
girl's  fancy  like  the  virgins  in  the   Bible  story,  carrying 
each  a  burning  lamp. 

ELIZABETH  STUART  PHELPS. 


92  JUNE. 

9.  Now  the  heart  is  so  full  that  a  drop  overfills  it, 
We  are  happy  now  because  God  wills  it ; 

No  matter  how  barren  the  past  may  have  been, 
'Tis  enough  for  us  now  that  the  leaves  are  green. 

Now  is  the  high-tide  of  the  year, 
And  whatever  of  life  hath  ebbed  away 

Comes  flooding  back  with  a  ripply  cheer, 
Into  every  bare  inlet  and  creek  and  bay. 

Every  clod  feels  a  stir  of  might, 

An  instinct  within  it  that  reaches  and  towers, 
And,  groping  blindly  above  it  for  light, 

Climbs  to  a  soul  in  grass  and  flowers. 

LOWELL. 

10.  But  what  instruction  the  baby  brings  to  the  mother ! 
She  learns  patience,  self-control,  endurance.     She  learns 
to  understand  character,  too,  by  dealing  with   the   little 
ones,     .    .    .     and  to  have  loved  them  is  a  liberal  educa- 
tion. 

For  the  height  of  heights  is  love.  The  philosopher 
dries  into  a  skeleton  like  that  he  investigates,  unless  love 
teaches  him.  He  is  blind  among  his  microscopes,  unless 
he  sees  in  the  humblest  human  soul  a  revelation  that 
dwarfs  all  the  work  beside.  While  he  grows  gray  in  igno- 
rance among  his  crucibles,  every  girlish  mother  is  being 
illuminated  by  every  kiss  of  her  child.  That  house  is  so 
far  sacred,  which  holds  within  its  walls  this  new-born  heir 
of  eternity.  Tt  Wt  HIGGINSON. 

Blessed  is  the  woman  who  exalts.  BULWER. 


JUNE.  93 

11.  It  is  more  needful  that  I  should  have  a  fibre  of 
sympathy  connecting  me  with   that  vulgar   citizen   who 
weighs  out  my  sugar  in  a  vilely  assorted  cravat  and  waist- 
coat, than  with  the  handsomest  rascal  in  red  scarf  and 
green  feathers ;  —  more  needful  that  my  heart  should  swell 
with  loving  admiration  at  some  trait  of  gentle  goodness  in 
the  faulty  people  who  sit  at  the  same  hearth  with  me,  or 
in  the  clergyman  of  my  own  parish,  who  is  perhaps  rather 
too  corpulent,  and  in  other  respects  is  not  an  Oberlin  or  a 
Tillotson,  than  at  the  deeds  of  heroes  whom  I  shall  never 
know  except  by  hearsay,  or  at  the  sublimest  abstract  of  all 
clerical  graces  that  was  ever  conceived  by  an  able  novelist. 

GEORGE  ELIOT. 

12.  Don't  try,  girls,  to  get  along  without  God,  for  He 
will  not  go  on  without  you.     You  may  fancy  yourselves 
quite  independent  of  the  Hereafter  and  think  you  belong 
to  just  the  things  of  earth.     But  you  cannot  really  believe 
that !     "  Of  course,  no  one  is  an  atheist,"  said  a  lovely  old 
lady  to  me.     "  He  may  fancy  he  is ;   but  just  think  how 
lonesome  he  would  be."  A.  H.  R. 

Go  to  God  with  all  your  little  cares,  and  hopes,  and 
sins,  and  sorrows,  as  freely  and  confidingly  as  you  come 
to  your  mother.  LOUISA  M.  ALCOTT. 

'•  Fate !  "  cried  Rienzi ;  "  there  is  no  fate  !  Between  the 
thought  and  the  success,  God  is  the  only  agent." 

BULWER. 

Contentment  abides  with  truth.  And  you  will  generally 
suffer  for  wishing  to  appear  other  than  what  you  are, 
whether  it  be  richer  or  greater  or  more  learned.  The 
mask  soon  becomes  an  instrument  of  torture. 

ARTHUR  HELPS. 


94  JUNE. 

13.  Shall  we  not  love  knowledge,  and  use  it  to  find  out 
truth ;  and  place  unspoken  fidelity  to  conscience  foremost 
amongst  our  duties  ;  and  care  for  the  progress  of  our  race 
rather  than  for  our  own  fame  ;  shall  we  not  be  truthful, 
and  honest,  and  upright,  and,  to  this  end,  brave  —  in  pub- 
lic as  in  private  life,  and  shall  we  not  seek  so  to  bear  our- 
selves that  men  shall  shrink  from  owning  their  ignobler 
thoughts  and  baser  shifts  to  us,  but  shall  never  fear  to 
avow  high  aims  and  pure  deeds,  while  yet  we  retain  our 
womanly  kindness  and  all  our  domestic  virtues  unchanged  ? 
All  this  we  may  know  that  we  can  be  and  do,  if  we  will, 
for  we  have   seen   it  exemplified  in  the  life  of  Harriet 
Martineau.  MRS.  F>  FENWICK  MILLER. 

14.  .     .     .     Let  any  clever  woman  simply  take  it  to 
heart  to  make  everybody  about  her  as  happy  as  she  can, 
and  the  result  I  believe  will  always  be  wonderful.     .     .     . 
Let  her  try  not  so  much  to  make  her  rooms  splendid  and 
aesthetically  admirable  as  to  make  them  thoroughly  habi- 
table and  comfortable  for  those  who  are  to  occupy  them. 

.  .  .  A  drawing-room  bright  and  clean,  sweet  with 
flowers  in  summer  or  with  dried  leaves  in  winter,  with 
tables  at  which  the  inmates  may  occupy  themselves,  and 
easy  chairs  wherever  they  are  wanted,  and  plenty  of  soft 
light  and  warmth,  or  else  of  coolness  adapted  to  the 
weather, —  this  sort  of  room  belongs  more  properly  to  a 
woman  who  seeks  to  make  her  house  a  province  of  the 
Kingdom  of  Heaven  than  one  which  might  be  exhibited  at 
South  Kensington  as  having  belonged  to  the  Kingdom  of 
Queen  Anne.  FRANCES  POWER  COBBE. 


JUNE.  95 

15.  Reputation,  after   all,  is  but  the  shadow  cast  by 
character;    beauty,  in  this  best  and  highest  sense,  com- 
mands all  forces  worth  the  having,  in  all  worlds.     Every 
form   of   attractiveness   confesses    the   primacy   of    this. 
Beauty  of  character  includes  every  good  of  which  a  human 
heart  can  know  and  makes  the  woman  who  possesses  it  a 
princess  in  Israel,  whose  home  is  everybody's  heart,  and 
whose  Heaven  is  everywhere.     The  dullest  eyes  may  re- 
flect this  beauty  ;  the  palest  cheek  bloom  with  it ;  the  most 
unclassic  lips  may  be  enwreathed  with  its  smile  of  ineffable 
good  will  and  heavenly  joy.    For  beauty  of  character  comes 
only  from  loving  obedience  to  every  known  law  of  God  in 
nature  and  in  grace.     Lovingly  to  learn  and  dutifully  to 
obey  these  laws  of  our  beneficent  Father  is  to  live. 

FRANCES  E.  WILLARD. 

16.  O,  yes,  girls,  it's  very  sweet  to  recall  such  women 
as  Alice  and  Phcebe  Cary,  Helen  Hunt,  Mrs.  Browning, 
and  Jean  Ingelow  who  expressed  in  words  such  beautiful 
thoughts  as  could  arise  only  from  beautiful  souls  ;  but  it 
is  dearer  yet  to  us  to  remember  that  women  uncounted  are 
living   those   thoughts   by  daily  acts.     Learn  to  lift  the 
cover  from  the  casket  of  a  woman's  soul  and  you  shall  see 
jewels  that  never  yet  have  been  exposed  to  the  glance  of 
one  who  looks   for   them  in  sparkling  eyes,  in  glowing 
cheeks,  and  radiant  hair. 

When  you  have  learned  to  look  for  inner  beauty  you 
will  learn  to  make  it  your  own.  Behind  your  lovely  faces 
and  your  beautiful  forms  there  will  be  nourished  the  lofti- 
est ideal  womanhood,  which  will  make  you  not  only  com- 
prehend the  worth  of  another,  but  will  help  you  to  interpret 
all  that  is  best  and  loveliest  everywhere.  A.  H.  R. 


96  JUNE. 

17.  I  wonder  what  the  Clover  thinks  !  — 

Intimate  friend  of  Bob-o-link's. 

Sweet  by  the  roadsides,  sweet  by  rills, 
Sweet  in  the  meadows,  sweet  on  hills, 
Sweet  in  its  white,  sweet  in  its  red, 
Oh,  half  its  sweet  cannot  be  said. 

SAXE  HOLM. 

18.  The  two  arts  of  letter-writing  and  conversation,  in- 
valuable both  as  instruments  of  pleasure  and  of  culture, 
seem  to  be  dying  out  before  the  encroachment  of  innu- 
merable trifles,  absorbing  amusements,  tyrannical  egotisms, 
and  that  pernicious  flood  of  ephemeral  literature,  whose 
varieties  are  daily  spawned  upon  all  tables.  The  long, 
careful  letters,  full  of  thought,  full  of  true  personal  inter- 
est and  earnest  general  sentiment,  so  common  two  or  three 
generations  ago,  are  all  but  unknown  now.  There  is  no 
time  left  for  them.  W.  R.  ALGER. 

Tight  lacing  is  not  only  a  hideous  stupidity,  it  is  a  crime, 
—  a  crime  that  casts  a  heavy  burden  upon  the  next  genera- 
tion, and  renders  the  present  one  incapable  of  its  duties. 

Miss  OAKEY. 

The  prevailing  fashion  of  using  tight  and  high-heeled 
boots  and  shoes  cannot  be  too  strongly  condemned  as  both 
hurtful  and  ugly.  High  heels  throw  the  weight  of  the 
body  forwards,  and  force  the  foot  down  on  to  the  toes. 
This  will  in  time  not  only  crush  all  shape  out  of  the  toes, 
causing  tender  feet,  corns,  bunions,  distorted  joints,  and 
in-growing  nails,  but  makes  the  natural  gait  stiff  and  un- 
gainly. PHYSIOLOGY. 


JUNE.  97 

19.  It  is  good  for  us  to  think  that  no  grace  or  blessing 
is  truly  ours  till  we  are  aware  that  God  has  blessed  some 
one  else  with  it  through  us.  PHILLIPS   BROOKS. 

No  task  was  too  hard  or  humble ;  no  day  long  enough 
to  do  all  she  longed  to  do ;  and  no  sacrifice  would  have 
seemed  too  great  for  those  whom  she  regarded  with  stead- 
ily increasing  love  and  gratitude. 

LOUISA  M.  ALCOTT. 

20.  Frank-hearted  hostess  of  the  field  and  wood, 
Gypsy,  whose  roof  is  every  spreading  tree, 
June  is  the  pearl  of  our  New  England  year. 
Still  a  surprisal,  though  expected  long, 
Her  coming  startles.     Long  she  lies  in  wait, 
Makes  many  a  feint,  peeps  forth,  draws  coyly  back 
Then,  from  some  southern  ambush  in  the  sky, 
With  one  great  gush  of  blossom  storms  the  world. 
A  week  ago  the  sparrow  was  divine  : 

The  bluebird,  shifting  his  light  load  of  song 
From  post  to  post  along  the  cheerless  fence, 
Was  as  a  rhymer  ere  the  poet  came ; 
But  now,  O  rapture !   sunshine  winged  and  voiced, 
Pipe  blown  through  by  the  warm  wild  wind  of  the 

west 

Shepherding  his  soft  doves  of  fleecy  clouds, 
Gladness  of  woods,  skies,  waters,  all  in  one, 
The  bobolink  has  come,  and,  like  the  soul 
Of  the  sweet  season  vocal  in  a  bird, 
Gurgles  in  ecstacy  we  know  not  what 
Save  June  !    Dear  June  !    Now  God  be  praised  for 

June.  LOWELL. 


98  JUNE. 

21.  What  worthy  pursuit  can  you  not,  by  excellence, 
raise  into  honor  and  esteem?     Matilda  of  Normandy  em- 
broidered, in  the  quiet  of  her  castle,  stitch  by  stitch,  and 
day  after  day,  the  battle  of  Hastings,  at  which  the  Con- 
queror won.     When  that  great  mingling  of  Normans  and 
Saxons  proved  to  be  the  important  and  the  last  step  in  the 
making  of  England,  men  looked  back  to  the  battle  which 
decided  the  Norman  Conquest,  and,  lacking  needed  infor- 
mation from  chronicles,  turned  to  the  work  of  Matilda. 
There,  on  the   Bayeux  tapestry,  was  wrought  the  battle 
scene  they  required, —  a  piece  of^woman's  work.     It  was  a 
peasant  girl,  you  know,  who  brought  victory  to  France  in 
the  Hundred  Years'  War  between  that  country  and  Eng- 
land. A.  H.  R. 

22.  O  Fortunate ',  O  happy  day, 

When  a  new  household  finds  its  place 
Among  the  myriad  homes  of  earth, 
Like  a  new  star  just  sprung  to  birth, 
And  rolled  on  its  harmonious  way 

Into  the  boundless  realms  of  space  ! 


For  two  alone,  there  in  the  hall, 
Is  spread  the  table  round  and  small ; 
Upon  the  polished  silver  shine 
The  evening  lamps,  but,  more  divine, 
The  light  of  love  shines  over  all ; 
Of  love,  that  says  not  mine  and  thine, 
But  ours,  for  ours  is  thine  and  mine. 

LONGFELLOW. 


JUNE.  99 

23.  Out-door  habits  depend  upon  the  personal  tastes 
of  the  individual,  and  are  best  cultivated  by  educating 
these.     If  a  young  girl  is  born  and  bred  with  a  love  of  any 
branch  of  natural  history  or  of  horticulture,  happy  is  she  ; 
for  the  mere  unconscious  interest  of  the  pursuit  is  an 
added  lease  of  life  to  her.     It  is  the  same  with  all  branches 
of  Art  whose  pursuit  leads  into  the  open  air.     Rosa  Bon- 
heur,  with  her  wanderings  among  mountains  and  pastures, 
alternating  with  the  vigorous  work  of  the  studio,  needed 
no   other   appliances  for  health.     The  same  advantages 
come  to  many,  in  the  bracing  habits  of  household  labor. 

T.  W.  HIGGINSON. 

24.  A  young  woman  who  is  afraid  of  compromising  her 
position  by  recognizing  men  out  of  her  set,  or  out  of  a 
certain  line  of  genteel  occupations,  shows  by  how  frail  a 
tenure  she  holds  her  own  respectability.     I  could  name  to 
you  women  who  have  not  only  a  recognized  but  a  com- 
manding position  in  the  best  society,  who  are  as  uniformly 
and  systematically  polite  to  the  clerk  who  sells  them  silks, 
as  to  the  pets  of  their  circle  ;  who  have  a  bow  and  a  smile 
for  all  with  whom  they  have  ever  been  thrown  into  per- 
sonal relations,  and  who,  by  this  very  politeness  vindicate 
their  place  among  those  whom  society  calls  ladies. 

TIMOTHY  TITCOMB. 

In  the  meantime  Helen  is  at  Clifton,  where  Horace 
Evarts  has  also  gone,  and  Mrs.  Long  wrote  that  they  all 
thought  it  would  soon  be  an  engagement.  I  wish  people 
wouldn't  speculate  in  this  horrid  way,  settling  a  girl's  life 
before  she  knows  herself  in  the  least  what  she  really  wants 
or  needs;  but  they  will,  I  suppose,  to  the  end  of  time. 

HELEN  CAMPBELL. 


100  JUNE. 

25.  Observe  the  humblest  flower  that  grows,  and  first 
you  may  notice  only  its  color,  or  form,  or  fragrance.     Ob- 
serve more  closely,  handle  it,  and  you  are  made  a  little 
thoughtful,  because,  all  unconsciously  to  yourself,  it  may 
be,  the  flower  is  doing  something  to  your  mind  and  heart 
and  soul.     Perhaps  its  velvety  softness  and  its  lowliness 
speak  to  you  of  humility  and  gentleness  ;   or  perhaps  its 
fragrance  breathes  sweetness  into  your  life  and  feeling, — 
only  a  little,  to  be  sure,  but  that  little  means  something. 
The  spirit  of  the  flower  speaks  to  your  spirit ;   and  you 
wonder  what  relation  it  bears  to  you,  and  if  you  are  not 
both  connected  with  the  spirit  of  God.  A.  H.  R. 

26.  Regard  not  much  who  is  for  thee,  or  who  against 
thee  :   but  give  all  thy  thought  and  care  to  this,  that  God 
be  with  thee  in  everything  thou  doest. 

Have  a  good  conscience,  and  God  will  defend  thee. 

For  whom  God  will  help,  no  malice  of  man  shall  be  able 
to  hurt. 

If  thou  canst  be  silent  and  suffer,  without  doubt  thou 
shalt  see  that  the  Lord  will  help  thee. 

By  two  wings  a  man  is  lifted  up  from  things  earthly, 
namely,  by  Simplicity  and  Purity. 

If  thou  intend  and  seek  nothing  else  but  the  will  of  God 
and  the  good  of  thy  neighbor,  thou  shalt  thoroughly  enjoy 
inward  liberty.  THOMAS  A  KEMPIS. 

He  liveth  long  who  liveth  well ; 

All  else  is  life  but  flung  away ; 
He  liveth  longest  who  can  tell 

Of  true  things  truly  done  each  day. 

H.  BONAR. 


27.  What  a  suffocating  feeling  it  is,  leaving   school 
for  ever  —  a  period,  an  era  completely  passed   and  left 
behind !     One  feels  that  childhood  is  over  now,  and  a 
sense  of  tenfold  increased  responsibility  and  independence, 
so  to  speak,  is  a  weight  upon  the  spirit      ....     One's 
future  education  and  formation  of  character,  whether  for 
good  or  evil,  depends  now  upon  one's  self.     Many  a  power 
of  mind  must  be  exercised,  which,  as  yet,  has  had  little 
opportunity  to  try  its  flight;  judgment  and  discretion  and 
a  thousand  things  are  needful ;   one  must  think  and  act 

-  far  more  for  oneself ;   self-denial  must  be  learnt ;   oh  !   so 
much  has  to  be  done  !    One's  spirifis  a  precious  diamond  ; 
the  rougher  cutting  work  has  been  done  by  other  hands, 
now  one  must  undertake  the  further  beautifying  oneself. 
FRANCES  R.  HAVERGAL. 

28.  He  serves  all  who  dares  to  be  true. 

EMERSON. 

Those  love  truth  best  who  to  themselves  are  true, 
And  what  they  dare  to  dream  of,  dare  to  do. 
Sincerity  is  impossible,  unless  it   pervade   the  whole 
being,  and  the  pretence  of  it  saps  the  very  foundation  of 
character. 

She  hath  a  natural,  wise  sincerity, 
A  simple  truthfulness,  and  these  have  lent  her 
A  dignity  as  moveless  as  the  centre  ; 
So  that  no  influence  of  earth  can  stir 

Her  steadfast  courage,  nor  can  take  away 
The  holy  perfectness,  which,  night  and  day, 
Unto  her  queenly  soul  doth  minister.          LOWELL. 


102  JUNE. 

29.  Small  talk  is  like  small  change,  good  to  buy  light 
commodities.     It  serves  to  scatter  smiling  favors,  pretty 
jests,  merry  words,  and  wins  a  way  into  the  good  graces  of 
our  acquaintances.     It  fills  many  an  hour  that  otherwise 
would  be  moody  and,  loans  a  sense  of  cheerfulness  and 
sportiveness    to   girls    especially.     Even   nonsense   is   at 
times  convenient  and  in  place,  and  girls  can  no  more  help 
falling  into  it  than  birds  can  help  singing  when  the  sun 
shines.    It  is  really  sad  when  a  girl  becomes  so   ultra 
proper  that  she  always  talks  the  strongest  sense.     But  re- 
member, girls,  small  talk  must  not  be  deliberate  fault-find- 
ing, nor  unjust  criticism,  nor  that  kind  of  gossip  which 
creates  a  love  for  scandal  and  only  adds  evil  to  evil.    And 
bear  in  mind,  too,  that  the  gold  of  real  conversation  is  not 
to  be  preferred  to,  nor  exchanged  for,  the  tinsel  of  chat- 
ter. A.  H.  R. 

30.  I  verily  believe  that  any  young  lady  who  would  em- 
ploy some  of  her  leisure  time  in  collecting  wild  flowers, 
carefully  examining  them,  verifying  them,  and  arranging 
them ;   or  who  would  in  her  summer  trip  to  the  sea-coast 
do  the  same  by  the  common  objects  of  the  shore,  instead 
of  wasting  her  holiday,  as  one  sees  hundreds  doing,  in 
lounging  on  benches  and  criticising  dresses  —  that  such  a 
young  lady,  I  say,  would  not  only  open  her  own  mind  to  a 
world  of  wonder,  beauty,  and  wisdom,  but  would   save 
herself  from  the  habit  of  gossip ;  because  she  would  have 
things  to  think  of  and  not  merely  persons ;  facts  instead 
of  fancies ;  while  she  would  acquire  something  of  accu- 
racy, of  patience,  of  methodical  observation  and  judgment, 
which  would  stand  her  in  good  stead  in  the  events  of 
daily  life.  CHARLES  KINGSLEY. 


JULY. 

1.  I  would  help  the  youngest  of  you  to  remember  what 
noble  Margaret  Fuller  said  :  "  No  woman   can  give  her 
hand  with  dignity,  or  her  heart  with  loyalty,  until  she  has 
learned  how  to  stand  alone"     It  is  not  so  much  what  comes 
to  you  as  what  you  come  to,  that  determines  whether  you 
are  a  winner  in  the  great  race  of  life.     Never  forget  that 
the  only  indestructible  material  in  destiny's  fierce  crucible 
is  character.     Say  this,  not  to  another  —  say  it  to  yourself ; 
utter  it  early,  and  repeat  it  often  :  Fail  me  not  thou. 

FRANCES  E.  WILLARD. 

2.  The  cares  and  worries  of  housekeeping  are  not  re- 
pugnant to  me.     With  a  lively  taste  for  the  acquisition  of 
knowledge,  I  yet  feel  that  I  could  pass  the  remainder  of  my 
life  without  opening  a  book  or  being  bored  by  not  doing 
so.     Let  only  the  home  I  live  in  be  embellished  by  order, 
peace,  and  harmony;  let  me  only  feel  that  I  have  helped 
towards  making  it  so,  and  be  able  to  tell  myself  at  the 
close  of  each  day  that  it  has  been  usefully  spent  for  the 
good  of  a  few,  —  and  I  shall  value  existence  and  daily  bless 
the  rising  of  the  sun.  MADAME  ROLAND. 

Truly,  from  the  smallest  Little  Peddington  that  carries 
on,  year  by  year,  its  bloodless  wars,  its  harmless  scandals, 
its  daily  chronicle  of  interminable  nothings,  to  the  great 
metropolitan  world,  fashionable,  intellectual,  noble,  or 
royal,  the  blight  of  civilized  life  is  gossip. 

Miss  MULOCK. 
The  worst  is  never  true  of  anybody. 

MRS.  A.  D.  T.  WHITNEY. 
I03 


104  JULY. 

3.  Not  unfrequently  the  most  important  years  of  a  life, 
the  years  which  tell  most  on  the  character,  are  unmarked 
by  any  notable  events.     A  steady,  orderly  routine,  a  grad- 
ual progression,  perseverance  in  hard  work,  often  do  more 
to  educate  and  form  than  a  varied  and  eventful  life. 

EDNA  LYALL. 

Look  at  a  cathedral  from  without,  and  the  windows 
are  all  dull  and  discolored  and  meaningless ;  but  step  in- 
side the  hallowed  edifice,  and  they  glow  with  gules  and 
amethyst,  and  tinge  the  sunlight  with  the  grandeur  or 
pathos  of  sacred  histories.  So  it  is  with  human  life.  It 
often  looks  to  us  dingy  and  inexplicable  ;  but  step  within 
the  sanctuary  of  faith,  and  God's  eternal  sunlight,  making 
the  whole  edifice  radiant  with  eternal  beauty  and  with  in- 
finite significance,  streams  into  it  with  many  colored  glories 
and  divine  mercy  and  human  heroism  or  toil. 

CANON  FARRAR. 

4.  Think  of  your   home  —  write  and   send  and   talk 
about  it.     Let  it  be  nearer  and  nearer  to  your  thought,  the 

farther  you  have  to  travel  from  it And  for 

your  country,  and  for  that  flag,  never  dream  a  dream  but 
of  serving  her  as  she  bids  you,  though  the  service  carry 
you  through  a  thousand  hells.     No  matter  what  happens 
to   you,  no  matter  who  flatters  )jpu  or  who  abuses  you, 
never  look  at  another  flag,  never  let  a  night  pass  but  you 
pray  God  to  bless  that  flag.    Remember,  boy,  that  behind 
all  these  men  you  have  to  do  with,  behind  officers,  and  gov- 
ernment, and  people  even,  there  is  the  Country  Herself, 
your  Country,  and  that  you  belong  to  Her  as  you  belong 
to  your  own  mother,  EDWARD  EVERETT  HALE. 


JULY.  105 

5.  ...     As  a  rose  opens  to  the  summer's  warmth, 
Guenn's  womanliness  awakened  more  and  more,  softening 
much  that  had  been  hard  in  her.     Yet  she  lost  none  of 
those  dominant  characterictics  which  separated  her  radi- 
cally from  other  girls,  and  made  her  peculiarly  herself,  — 
her  boylike  instinct  for  fair  play,  fiery  scorn  of  a  blow  in 
the  back,  and  large-hearted  protection  of  the  feeble,  unde- 
fended, and  absent,  —  attributes  seldom,  indeed,  found  or 
expected  in  womankind,  from  its  queens  down  to  its  fish- 
girls,  but  nevertheless  worthy  of  some  contemplation  on 
the  part  of  those  interested  in  the  higher  education   of 
women,  as  rarer  than  decorative  art,  more  precious  than 
Sanscrit.  BLANCHE  WILLIS  HOWARD. 

6.  It  was  a  maxim  with  Madame  de  Stae'l  that  polite- 
ness is  the  art  of  choosing  among  one's   real  thoughts. 
Her  whole   demeanor  was    marked  by  a   disposition   to 
oblige  ;  there  were  abundant  wit  and  vivid  repartee,  but 
no  chicanery,  and,  especially,  no  severity,  in  her  expres- 
sions. ABEL  STEVENS. 

Are  there  not  women  who  fill  our  vase  with  wine  and 
roses  to  the  brim,  so  that  the  wine  runs  over  and  fills  the 
house  with  perfume ;  who  inspire  us  with  courtesy ;  who 
unloose  our  tongues,  and  we  speak ;  who  anoint  our  eyes, 
and  we  see  ?  We  say  things  we  never  thought  to  have 
said  ;  for  once  our  walls  of  habitual  reserve  vanished,  and 
left  us  at  large ;  we  were  children  playing  with  children  in 
a  wide  field  of  flowers.  Steep  us,  we  cried,  in  these  influ- 
ences, for  days,  for  weeks,  and  we  shall  be  sunny  poets, 
and  will  write  out  in  many-colored  words  the  romance 
that  you  are.  EMERSON. 


106  JULY. 

7.  We  should  begin  life  with  books,  they  multiply  the 
sources  of  employment ;  so  does  capital ;  but  capital  is  of  no 
use  unless  we  live  on  the  interest  —  books  are  waste  paper 
unless  we  spend  in  action  the  wisdom  we  get  from  thought. 

BULWER. 

Nothing  is  to  be  gained  by  pretending  to  like  what 
one  really  dislikes,  or  to  enjoy  what  one  does  not  find 
profitable,  or  even  intelligible.  If  a  reader  is  not  honest 
and  sincere  in  this  matter,  there  is  small  hope  for  him. 
The  lowest  taste  may  be  cultivated  and  improved,  and  radi- 
cally changed;  but  pretense  and  artificiality  can  never 
grow  into  anything  better.  They  must  be  wholly  rooted 
out  at  the  start.  If  you  dislike  Shakespeare's  "  Hamlet," 
and  greatly  enjoy  a  trashy  story,  say  so  with  sincerity  and 
sorrow,  if  occasion  requires,  and  hope  and  work  for  a  re- 
versal of  your  taste.  "  It's  guid  to  be  honest  and  true," 
says  Burns,  and  nowhere  is  honesty  more  needed  than 
here.  C.  F.  RICHARDSON. 

8.  But  the  country  girls  (Alice  and  Phebe  Gary)  uncul- 
tured in  mind  and  rustic  in  manners,  not  needing  to  be  told 
the  immense  distance  which  separated  them  from  the  world 
of  letters  which  they  longed  to  enter,  would  not  be  dis- 
couraged. If  they  must  darn  and  bake,  they  would  also 
study  and  write,  and  at  last  publish :  if  candles  were  de- 
nied them,  a  saucer  of  lard  with  a  bit  of  rag  for  wick  could 
and  did  serve  instead.  And  so,  for  ten  long  years,  they 
studied  and  wrote  and  published  without  pecuniary  recom- 
pense ;  often  discouraged  and  despondent,  yet  never  de- 
spairing ;  looking  out  to  the  graveyard  on  the  near  hillside 
with  a  regret  for  the  past,  and  over  and  beyond  it  into  the 

unknown  distance  with  hope  for  the  future. 

ADA  CARNAHAN. 


JULY.  107 

9.  The  best  part  of  the  home  should  ever  be  regarded 
as  personal,  and  rigidly  held  so.    It  is  first  and  most  a 
question  of  good  breeding,  fine  tastes,  simple  and  charming 
habits,  wealth  of  mind  and  heart,  and  handsome  hospitality 
to  the  better  nature.  SUMNER  ELLIS. 

A  woman  puts  all  her  income  into  party-dresses,  and 
thinks  anything  will  do  to  wear  at  home.  All  her  old 
tumbled  finery,  her  frayed,  dirty  silks  and  soiled  ribbons, 
are  made  to  do  duty  for  her  hours  of  intercourse  with  her 
dearest  friends.  Some  seem  to  be  really  principled  against 
wearing  a  handsome  dress  in  every-day  life  ;  they  "  cannot 
afford  "  to  be  well-dressed  in  private.  Now  what  I  should 
recommend  would  be  to  take  the  money  necessary  for  one 
or  two  party-dresses  and  spend  it  upon  an  appropriate 
and  tasteful  home-toilette,  and  to  make  it  an  avowed  object 
to  look  prettily  at  home.  HARRIET  BEECHER  STOWE. 

10.  It  is  of  great  value  here  and  now  to  anticipate 
time  and  live  to-day  the  eternal  life.     That  we  may  all  do. 
The  joys  of  heaven  will  begin  as  soon  as  we  attain  the 
character  of  heaven  and  do  its  duties.     That  may  begin 
to-day.     It  is  everlasting  life  to  know  God,  to  have  His 
spirit  dwelling  in  you,  yourself  at  one  with  Him.    Try  that 
and  prove  its  worth.     Justice,  usefulness,  wisdom,  religion, 
love,  are  the  best  things  we  hope  for  in  heaven.    Try  them 
on  —  they  will  fit  you  here  not  less  becomingly.    They  are 
the  best  things  of  earth.     Think  no  outlay  of  goodness 
and  piety  too  great.     You  will  find  your  reward  begin  here. 
As  much  goodness  and  piety,  so  much  heaven.     Men  will 
not  pay  you  —  God  will ;  pay  you  now,  hereafter  and  for- 
ever-  THEODORE  PARKER, 


108  JULY. 

11.  She  gave  out  of  herself,  as  if  she  had  possessed 
the  life  everlasting  before  her  time.     She  had  bread  to  eat 
that  he  knew  not  of.     He  could  not  think  of  her  as  sink- 
ing, dejected,  in  need,  ahungered.    Her  splendid  health  was 
like  a  god  to  her.     She  leaned  against  her  own  physical 
strength  as  another  woman  might  lean  upon  a  man's.     She 
had  the  repose  of  her  full  mental  activity.     She  had  her 
dangerous  and  sacred  feminine  nerve  under  magnificent 
training.     It  was  her  servant,  not  her  tyrant ;  her  wealth, 
not  her  poverty ;  the  source  of  her  power,  not  the  exponent 
of  her  weakness.     She  moved  on  her  straight  and  narrow 
way  between  life  and  death,  where  one  hysteric  moment 
would  be  fatal,  with  a  glorious  poise.    The  young  man  ac- 
knowledged from  the  bottom  of  his  heart  that  the  Doctor 
was  a  balanced  and  a  beautiful  character.     He  had  read 
of  such  women.     He  had  never  seen  one. 

ELIZABETH  STUART  PHELPS. 

12.  There  is  always  a  best  way  of  doing  everything,  if 
it  be  to  boil  an  egg.     Manners  are  the  happy  ways  of  doing 
things;   each  once  a  stroke  of  genius  or  of  love,  —  now 
repeated  and  hardened  into  usage. 

Your  manners  are  always  under  examination,  and  by 
committees  little  suspected,  —  a  police  in  citizens'  clothes, 
—  but  are  awarding  or  denying  you  very  high  prizes  when 
you  least  think  of  it. 

Look  on  this  woman.  There  is  not  beauty,  nor  brilliant 
sayings,  nor  distinguished  power  to  serve  you  ;  but  all  see 
her  gladly  ;  her  whole  air  and  impression  are  healthful. 

Manners  require  time,  as  nothing  is  more  vulgar  than 
haste.  EMERSON. 


JULY.  109 

13.  Let  nothing  make  thee  sad  or  fretful 
Or  too  regretful, 

Be  still. 

What  God  hath  ordered  must  be  right ; 

Then  find  in  it  thine  own  delight, 

My  Will.  PAUL  FLEMMING. 

Never  mind  your  first  failures,  girls.  No  matter  if 
the  biscuits  are  "  as  heavy  as  lead  "  and  numerous  enough 
to  supply  a  factory  boarding-house.  Laugh  with  the  rest 
at  your  stupidity ;  but,  all  the  while,  keep  a  firm  hold  of 
pride  and  make  a  secret  resolve  never  to  abandon  biscuit- 
baking  till  you  have  attained  efficiency  in  making  bread 
delicious  to  the  taste  and  satisfactory  in  quantity.  It  is 
well  to  be  thankful  for  defeat  sometimes  because  we  have 
an  opportunity  then  for  observing  what  the  strength  of 
our  pride  and  perseverance  will  lead  us  to  really  conquer 
next.  A.  H.  R. 

14.  When  one  first  catches  the  smell  of  the  sea  his 
lungs  seem  involuntarily  to  expand,  the  same  as  they  do 
when  he  steps  into  the  open  air  after  long  confinement  in- 
doors.    There  before  him  is   aboriginal  space,  and  the 
breath  of   it  thrills  and  dilates  his  body.     .     .     It  is   a 
breath  out  of  the  morning  of  the  world  —  bitter,  but  so 
fresh  and  tonic !     .     .     .     We  seem  to  breathe  a  larger 
air  on  the  coast.     It  is  the  place  for  large  types,  large 
thoughts.     Tis  not  farms  or  a  township,  we  see  now,  but 
God's   own   domain.     Possession,   civilization,  boundary 
lines  cease,  and  there  within  reach  is  a  clear  page  of  terres- 
trial space  as  unmarred  and  as  unmarrable  as  if  plucked 
from  the  sidereal  heavens.  JOHN  BURROUGHS. 


IIO  JULY. 

15.  Easy,  pleasant  and  beautiful  as  it  is  to  obey,  de- 
velopment of  character  is  not  complete  when  the  person  is 
fitted  only  to  obey.     There  comes  a  time  in  most  women's 
lives  when  they  have  to  learn  how  to  govern  —  first,  them- 
selves, then  those  about  them.     I  say  to  learn  ;  because  it 
has  to  be  learnt.  Miss  MULOCK. 

She  was  one  of  that  large  class  of  women  who,  mod- 
erately endowed  with  talents,  earnest  and  true-hearted 
are  driven  by  necessity,  temperament,  or  principle  out  into 
the  world  to  find  support,  happiness,  and  home  for  them- 
selves. Many  turn  back  discouraged ;  more  accept  shadow 
for  substance,  and  discover  their  mistake  too  late.  The 
weakest  lose  their  purpose  and  themselves ;  but  the  strong- 
est struggle  on,  and  after  danger  and  defeat  earn  at  last 
the  best  success  this  world  can  give  them,  —  the  possession 
of  a  brave  and  cheerful  spirit,  rich  in  self-knowledge,  self- 
control,  and  self-help.  LOUISA  M.  ALCOTT. 

1 6.  Were  I  to  pray  for  a  taste  which  should  stand  me 
in  stead  under  every  variety  of  circumstances,  and  be  a 
source  of  happiness  and  cheerfulness  to  me  during  life,  and 
a  shield  against  its  ills,  however  things  might  go  amiss, 
and  the  world  frown  upon  me,  it  would  be  a  taste  for  read- 
ing.    Give  a  man  this  taste,  and  the  means  of  gratifying  it, 
and  you  can  hardly  fail  of  making  him  a  happy  man ;    un- 
less,  indeed,  you  put   into   his   hands   a   most   perverse 
selection  of  books.     You  place  him  in  contact  with  the 
best  society  in  every  period  of  history  —  with  the  wisest, 
the  wittiest,  the  tenderest,  the  bravest,  and  the  purest  char- 
acters who  have  adorned  humanity.     You   make  him  a 
denizen  of  all  nations,  a  contemporary  of  all  ages.     The 
world  has  been  created  for  him.      SIR  JOHN  HERSCHEL. 


JULY.  Ill 

17.     Much  must  be  borne  which  it  is  hard  to  bear, 

Much  given  away  which  it  were  sweet  to  keep. 
God  help  us  all,  who  need  indeed  His  care, 
And  yet  I  know  the  Shepherd  loves  His  sheep. 

RUTH  OGDEN. 

A  Son  of  God  who  has  declared  everlasting  war 
against  disease,  ignorance,  sin,  death,  and  all  which  makes 
men  miserable.  Those  are  his  enemies  ;  and  he  reigns,  and 
will  reign,  till  he  has  put  all  enemies  under  his  feet,  and 
there  is  nothing  left  in  God's  universe  but  order  and  useful- 
ness, health  and  beauty,  knowledge  and  virtue,  in  the  day 
when  God  shall  be  all  in  all. 

This  all-good  Son  of  God  I  preach  unto  you,  and  I  say 
to  you,  Trust  him,  and  obey  him.  Obey  him,  not  lest  he 
should  become  angry  with  you  and  harm  you,  like  the  false 
gods  of  the  heathen,  but  because  his  commandments  are 
life ;  because  he  has  made  them  for  your  good. 

CHARLES  KINGSLEY. 

18.  Impartial  treatment  of  those  we  meet  in  society  is 
certainly  very  charming.  We  say  it  is  a  great  accomplish- 
ment to  be  able  to  speak  a  pleasant  word  to  the  neighbor 
on  the  right,  and  a  different,  though  equally  expressive, 
one  to  the  friend  on  the  left.  Mary  likes  books,  Sally 
prefers  society,  Ruth  enjoys  housekeeping,  Margaret  is 
fond  of  music.  Then  why  not  ask  Mary  if  she  has  noticed 
the  beautiful  woodcuts  in  the  last  Harper's,  or  seen  the 
new  edition  of  Hawthorne  ?  Why  not  inquire  of  Sallie 
about  the  last  matinee  and  the  last  hop  ?  Why  not  ask 
Ruth  how  she  made  those  delicious  rolls,  and  how  she 
prepared  the  coffee  ?  And  why  not  make  Margaret  give  you 
her  opinion  of  Wagner  or  of  Beethoven.  A.  H.  R. 


112  JULY. 

19.  "Nonsense!     You  don't  belong  to  the  sisterhood, 
and  can't  for  a  dozen  years.     The  crinkles  must  get  out 
of  your  hair,  the  twinkles  out  of  your  eyes,  and  the  red  off 
your  cheeks,  before  you  read  your  title  clear,"  said  Uncle 
Pepperfield.  .  "  Besides,  there  are  no  old  maids  nowadays, 
only  a  few  left  over  from  the  last  century,  hidden  away  in 
corners.     Bless  'em  !     They  ought  to  have  as  much  honor 
paid  to  them  as  folks  are  paying  to  old  spinning-wheels 
and  other  precious  relics.     No  :   the  women  who  don't  get 
married  in  these  days  know  the  reason  why,  and  other 
folks  generally  are  ready  to  believe  it  is  a  good  one.     Some 
make  themselves  so  smart  it  is  likely  they  were  predestin- 
ated to  just  that  smartness  and  are  as  great  a  success  as  if 
they  had  married."  ANNETTE  NOBLE. 

Better  be  happy  old  maids  than  unhappy  wives. 

LOUISA  M.  ALCOTT. 

That  which  is  striking  and  beautiful  is  not  always  good, 
but  that  which  is  good  is  always  beautiful. 

NINON  DE  LENCLOS. 

20.  The  two  daughters,  Jane  and  Maria,  had  naturally 
very  sweet  voices,  and,  when  they  were  little,  trilled  tunes 
in  a  very  pleasant  and  bird-like  manner.     But  now,  having 
been  instructed  by  the  best  masters,  and  heard  the  very 
first  artists,  they  never  sing  or  play ;   the  piano  is  shut,  and 
their  voices  are  dumb.     If  you  request  a  song,  they  tell 
you  that  they  never  sing  now ;   papa  has  such  an  exquisite 
taste,  he  takes  no  interest  in  any  common  music  ;   in  short, 
having  heard  Jenny  Lind,  Grisi  Alboni,  Mario,  and  others 
of  the  tuneful  shell,  this  family  have  concluded  to  abide  in 
silence.  HARRIET  BEECHER  STOWE. 


JULY.  II3 

21.     Yet  sets  she  not  her  soul  so  steadily 
Above,  that  she  forgets  her  ties  to  earth, 
But  her  whole  thought  would  almost  seem  to  be 
How  to  make  glad  one  lowly  human  hearth  ; 
For  with  a  gentle  courage  she  doth  strive 
In  thought  and  word  and  feeling  so  to  live 
As  to  make  earth  next  heaven  ;   and  her  heart 
Herein  doth  show  its  most  exceeding  worth, 
That,  bearing  in  her  frailty  her  just  part, 
She  hath  not  shrunk  from  evils  of  this  life, 
But  hath  gone  calmly  forth  into  the  strife, 
And  all  its  sins  and  sorrows  hath  withstood 
With  lofty  strength  of  patient  womanhood : 
For  this  I  love  her  great  soul  more  than  all, 
That,  being  bound,  like  us,  with  earthly  thrall, 
She  walks  so  bright  and  heaven-like  therein, — 
Too  wise,  too  meek,  too  womanly,  to  sin. 

LOWELL. 

22.  Many  a  summer  morning  have  I  crept  out  of  the 
still  house  before  anyone  was  awake,  and,  wrapping  myself 
closely  from  the  chill  wind  of  dawn,  climbed  to  the  top  of 
the  high  cliff  called  the  Head  to  watch  the  sun  rise.  Pale 
grew  the  lighthouse  frame  before  the  broadening  day  as, 
nestling  in  a  crevice  at  the  cliff's  edge,  I  watched  the 
shadows  draw  away  and  morning  break.  Facing  the  east 
and  south,  with  the  Atlantic  before  me,  what  happiness 
was  mine  as  the  deepening  rose-color  flushed  the  delicate 
cloud-flocks  that  dappled  the  sky,  where  the  gulls  soared, 
rosy  too,  while  the  calm  sea  blushed  beneath.  Infinite 
variety  of  beauty  always  awaited  me,  and  filled  me  with  an 
absorbing,  unreasoning  joy  such  as  makes  the  song-sparrow 
sing,—  a  sense  of  perfect  bliss.  CELIA  THAXTER. 


1 14  JULY. 

23.  In  the  old,  historic  part  of  Boston,  close  by  the 
chime  of  bells  given  to  the  American  colonists  by  King 
George,  under  the  vigilant  eye  of  the  old  cockerel,  there 
stood,  in  1816,  a  "rough  cast"  house.    There,  amid  the 
summer  heats,  was  born,  of  stern  Puritan  stock,  a  blue-eyed 
girl,  who  afterwards,  single-handed,  fought  her  way  to  an 
eminence  where  she  stood  a  queen,  her  royal  right  unchal- 
lenged !     Boston  proudly  boasts  that  her  day  and  genera- 
tion had  not  Charlotte  Cushman's  equal.     In  1867  the  old 
house  was  torn  down  and  in  its  place  a  handsome  brick 
schoolhouse  was  built, —  the  Cushman  School.     Here  she 
made  her  "  maiden  speech  "  to  upturned  girlish  faces,  and 
said  that  higher  than  her  culture  or  genius  or  graces  of 
character,  she  ranked  her  ability  for  work.     This  was  the 
secret  of  her  success,  and  the  legacy  she  bequeathed  to  the 
girls  of  the  Cushman  School.  ANON. 

24.  Some  one  once  asked   the   Duke   of  Wellington 
what  his  secret  was  for  winning  battles.     And  he  said  that 
he  had  no  secret ;  that  he  did  not  know  how  to  win  battles, 
and  that  no  man  knew.     For  all,  he  said,  that  man  could 
do,  was  to  look  beforehand  steadily  at  all  the  chances,  and 
lay  all  possible  plans:  but  from  the  moment  the  battle 
began,  he  said,  no  mortal  prudence  was  of  use,  and  no 
mortal  man  could  know  what  the  end  would  be.     A  thou- 
sand new  accidents  might  spring  up  every  hour,  and  scatter 
all  his  plans  to  the  winds  ;   and  all  that  man  could  do  was 
to  comfort  himself  with  the  thought  that  he  had  done  his 
best,  and  to  trust  in  God.     .    .    .     My  friends,  learn  from 
this  a  lesson  for  the  battle  of  life,  which  every  one  of  us 
has  to  fight  from  the  cradle  to  the  grave. 

CHARLES  KINGSLEY. 


JULY.  115 

25.  Beware  of  excess,  girls.     Kinds  of  dissipation  seem 
to  be  not  worse  than  the  frequency  with  which  one  indulges 
in  them.     Extremes  in  sports,  in  amusements  of  any  kind 
either  work  disaster  or  get  worn  out  from  too  constant 
use.     Moderation  and  discretion  are  as  well  worth  consid- 
eration in  our  times  of  enjoyment  as  in  hours  of  hard  work. 
Lawn  tennis  every  afternoon,  dancing  parties  every  week, 
novels  every  rainy  day,  not  only  conceal  all   the  virtue 
there  might  be  in  such  sport  or  entertainment  if  less  fre- 
quently resorted  to,  but  dissipate  the  wholesome  delight 
in  other  pleasures  as  well.    Too  much  of  a  sport,  too  much 
of  certain  gayeties,  in  themselves  well  meaning,  sap  physi- 
cal and  moral  strength,  and  make  life  contain   nothing 
fresh  and  new.  A.  H.  R. 

26.  "  Be  not  simply  good,  be  good  for  something,"  said 
Henry  D.  Thoreau.     A  bright-eyed  girl  of  eighteen  used  to 
come  to  me  on  Friday  evenings  to  give  me  German  lessons. 
To  be  sure,  I  have  lived  in  Germany,  and  she  has  never 
been  out  of  Illinois,  but  then  that  language  is  not  my  spe- 
cialty, while  it  is  hers.     "  How  is  it  that  though  so  young, 
you  have  made  yourself  independent  ?  "  I  inquired  of  her 
one  day.     Listen  to  the  reply :   "  My  mother  was  always 
quoting  this  saying  of  Carlyle  :    '  The  man  who  has  a  six- 
pence commands  the  world  —  to  the  extent  of  that  six- 
pence.'    I  early  laid  this  sentiment  to   heart.     Besides, 
when  I  was  fifteen  years  old,  I  heard  a  sermon  on  the  text ; 
4  This  one  thing  I  do.'     I  thought,  why  not  in  everyday 
affairs  as  well  as  in  religion  do  one  thing  well,  rather  than 
many  things  indifferently,  and  in  that  way  secure  the  magic 
sixpence  of  Carlyle.  FRANCES  E.  WILLARD. 


Il6  JULY. 

27.  Fair  was  she  to  behold,  that  maiden  of  seventeen 
summers. 

Down  the  long  street  she  passed,  with  her  chaplet  of  beads 
and  her  missal, 

Wearing  the  Norman  cap,  and  her  kirtle  of  blue,  and  the 
earrings, 

Brought  in  the  olden  time  from  France,  and  since,  as  an 
heirloom, 

Handed  down  from  mother  to  child,  through  long  genera- 
tions. 

But  a  celestial  brightness  —  a  more  ethereal  beauty  — 

Shone  on  her  face  and  encircled  her  form,  when,  after  con- 
fession, 

Homeward  serenely  she  walked  with  God's  benediction 
upon  her. 

When  she  had  passed  it  seemed  like  the  ceasing  of  exqui- 
site music.  LONGFELLOW. 

28.  I  bring  fresh  showers  for  the  thirsting  flowers, 
From  the  seas  and  the  streams ; 

I  bear  light  shade  for  the  leaves  when  laid 

In  their  noonday  dreams. 
From  my  wings  are  shaken  the  dews  that  waken 

The  sweet  buds  every  one, 
When  rocked  to  rest  on  their  Mother's  breast, 

As  she  dances  about  in  the  sun. 
I  wield  the  flail  of  the  lashing  hail, 

And  whiten  the  green  plains  under ; 
And  then  again  I  dissolve  in  rain, 

And  laugh  as  I  pass  in  thunder.  SHELLEY. 


JULY.  Iiy 

29.  Economy  doesn't  mean  scrimping  in  one  place  to 
make  a  show  in  another.  LOUISA  M.  ALCOTT. 

"  We  say  that  it  is  the  duty  of  every  man,  with  any 
means,  to  observe  proportion  in  his  surplus  expenses ;  to 
have  a  conscientious  order  with  regard  to  the  service 
which  his  superfluous  dollars  discharge.  Over  against 
every  prominent  allowance  for  a  personal  luxury,  the  ce- 
lestial record  book  ought  to  show  some  entry  in  favor  of 
the  cause  of  goodness  and  suffering  humanity ;  for  every 
guinea  that  goes  into  a  theatre,  a  museum,  an  atheneum, 
or  the  treasury  of  a  music  hall,  there  ought  to  be  some 
twin  guinea  pledged  for  a  truth,  or  flying  on  some  errand 
of  mercy  in  a  city  so  crowded  with  misery  as  this. 

THOMAS  STARR  KING. 

30.  A  word,  or  the  want  of  a  word,  is  a  little  thing"; 
but  into  the  momentary  mound  or  chasm,  so  made  or  left, 
throng  circumstances  ;  these  thrust  wider  and  wider  asun- 
der, till  the  whole  round  bulk  of  the  world  may  lie  between 
two  lives.  MRS.  A.  D.  T.  WHITNEY. 

O  my  lost  love,  and  my  own,  own  love, 

And  my  love  that  loved  me  so ! 
Is  there  never  a  chink  in  the  world  above, 

Where  they  listen  for  words  from  below  ? 

JEAN  INGELOW. 

Could  ye  come  back  to  me,  Douglas,  Douglas, 

In  the  old  likeness  that  I  knew, 
I  would  be  so  faithful,  so  loving,  Douglas, 

Douglas,  Douglas,  tender  and  true. 

MRS.  MULOCK  (CRAIK). 


Il8  JULY. 

31.  It  would  be  the  height  of  absurdity  for  the  child  to 
think  and  speak  of  its  father  as  if  he  were  a  child  too,  and 
could  do  no  more  than  the  boy's  playmates.  Yet  this  is  the 
common  error  of  the  children  of  God.  We  do  not  raise 
our  thoughts  to  a  god-like  level.  We  think  our  own 
thoughts  of  God,  and  straightway  we  doubt.  Oh,  that  we 
rose  to  God's  thoughts,  and  tried  to  conceive  how  He 
looks  upon  matters  !  Surely  he  taketh  up  the  isles  as  a 
very  little  thing,  and  the  mountains  he  weighs  in  scales, 
If  our  troubles  were  set  in  the  light  of  God's  power,  and 
love,  and  faithfulness,  and  wisdom,  they  would  become  to 
us  small  burdens.  Why  should  we  not  so  regard  them  ? 

SPURGEON, 


AUGUST. 

1.  According  to  the  calendar,  the  summer  ought  to  cul- 
minate about  the  2ist  of  June,  but  in  reality  it  is  some 
weeks  later ;  June  is  a  maiden  month  all  through.     It  is 
not  high  noon  in  nature  till  about  the  first  or  second  week 
in  July.     When  the  chestnut  tree  blooms,  the  meridian  of 
the  year  is  reached.     By  the  first  of  August,  it  is  fairly  one 
o'clock.     The  lustre  of  the  season  begins  to  dim,  the  foli- 
age of  the  trees  and  woods  to  tarnish,  the  plumage  of  the 
birds  to  fade,  and  their  songs  to  cease.     The  hints  of  ap- 
proaching fall  are  on  every  hand.     How  suggestive  this 
thistle-down,  for  instance,  which,  as  I  sit  by  the  open  win- 
dow, comes  in  and  brushes  softly  across  my  hand  !    The 
first  snow-flake  tells  of  winter  not  more  plainly  than  this 
driving  down  heralds  the  approach  of  fall.     Come  here, 
my  fairy,  and  tell  me  whence  you  come  and  whither  you  go  ? 

JOHN  BURROUGHS. 

2.  But  Margery  sat  on  the  doorsteps  and  wondered,  as 
the  sea  sounded  louder,  and  the  sunshine  grew  warmer 
around  her.     It  was  all  so  strange,  and  grand,  and  beauti- 
ful !    Her  heart  danced  with  joy  to  the  music  that  went 
echoing  through  the  wide  world  from  the  roots  of  the 
sprouting  grass  to  the  great  golden  blossom  of  the  sun. 

And  when  the  round,  gray  eyes  closed  that  night,  at  the 
first  peep  of  the  stars,  the  angels  looked  down  and  won- 
dered over  Margery.  For  the  wisdom  of  the  wisest  being 
God  has  made  ends  in  wonder ;  and  there  is  nothing  on 
earth  so  wonderful  as  the  budding  soul  of  a  little  child. 

LUCY  LARCOM. 
119 


120  AUGUST. 

3.  •  Kindness  to  animals  is  no  unworthy  exercise  of  be 
nevolence.     We  hold  that  the  life  of  brutes  perishes  with 
their  breath,  and  that  they  are  never  to  be  clothed  again 
with   consciousness.     The   inevitable  shortness,  then,  of 
their   existence  should  plead  for  them  touchingly.     The 
insects  on  the  surface  of  the  water,  poor  ephemeral  things 
—  who  would  heedlessly  abridge  their  dancing  pleasure  of 
to-day  ?    Such  feelings  we  should  have  toward  the  whole 
brute  creation.     To  those  animals,  over  which  we  are  mas- 
ters for  however  short  a  time,  we  have  positive  duties  to 
perform.     This  seems  too  obvious  to  be  insisted  upon  ; 
but  there  are  persons  who  act  as  though  they  thought  they 
could  buy  the  right  of  ill-treating  any  of  God's  creatures. 

ARTHUR  HELPS. 

4.  "  Life  and  light !  "     The  words  have  a  familiar  and 
a  solemn  sound.     Are  they  snatches  from  some  forgotten 
sentiment  of  Holy  Writ  ?  John,  perhaps  ?  John,  the  golden 
lipped,  happy-hearted  young  enthusiast  ?  What  a  poet  that 
fisherman  was  !     No  wonder  that  modern  dispute  centres 
about  the  authenticity  of  the  Fourth  Gospel.     Life  and 
Light !    In  all  the  universe  those  were  the  only  two  words 
that  could  interpret  the  summer-noon  meaning  of  this  vir- 
gin State  of  Maine.  ELIZABETH  STUART  PHELPS. 

Resounds  the  living  surface  of  the  ground  : 
Nor  undelightful  is  the  ceaseless  hum, 
To  him  who  muses  through  the  woods  at  noon ; 
Or  drowsy  shepherd,  as  he  lies  reclined, 
With  half-shut  eyes,  beneath  the  floating  shade 
Of  willows  gray,  close-crowding  o'er  the  brook. 

THOMSON. 


AUGUST.  121 

5.  There  are  duties  devolving  on  every  human  being, 
—  duties  not  small  nor  few,  but  vast  and  varied,  — which 
spring  from  home  and  private  life,  and  all  their  sweet  rela- 
tions.    The  support  or  care  of  the  humblest  household  is 
a  function  worthy  of  men,  women,  and  angels,  so  far  as  it 
goes.     From  these  duties  none  must  shrink,  neither  man 
nor  woman ;  the  loftiest  genius  cannot  ignore  them ;  the 
sublimest  charity  must  begin  with  them.     They  are  their 
own  exceeding  great  reward  ;  their  self-sacrifice  is  infinite 
joy ;  and  the  selfishness  which  discards  them  is  repaid  by 
loneliness  and  a  desolate  old  age. 

T.  W.  HIGGINSON. 

6.  Stay,  stay  at  home,  my  heart,  and  rest ; 
Home-keeping  hearts  are  happiest, 

For  those  that  wander  they  know  not  where 
Are  full  of  trouble  and  full  of  care  : 
To  stay  at  home  is  best. 

Weary  and  homesick  and  distressed 
They  wander  east,  and  wander  west, 
And  are  baffled  and  beaten  and  blown  about 
By  the  winds  of  the  wilderness  of  doubt ; 
To  stay  at  home  is  best. 

Then  stay  at  home,  my  heart,  and  rest; 
The  bird  is  safest  in  its  nest ; 
O'er  all  that  flutter  their  wings  and  fly 
A  hawk  is  hovering  in  the  sky  ;  — 
To  stay  at  home  is  best. 

LONGFELLOW. 


122  AUGUST. 

7.  "  Lord,  it  is  good  for  us  to  be  here,"  the  disciples 
said.     And  it  was  good  for  them  to  be  there  :  but  not  too 
long.     Man  was  sent  into  this  world  not  merely  to  see  but 
to  do ;  and  the  more  he  sees,  the  more  he  is  bound  to  go 
and  do  accordingly.     St.  Peter  had  to  come  down  from  the 
mount,  and  preach  the  Gospel  wearily  for  many  years,  and 
die  at  last   upon   the  cross.     St.  Augustine,  though  he 
would  gladly  have  lived  and  died  doing  nothing  but  fixing 
his  soul's  eye  steadily  on  the  glory  of   God's  goodness, 
had  to  come  down  from  the  mount  likewise,  and  work,  and 
preach,  and  teach,  and  wear  himself  out  in  daily  drudgery 
for  that  God  whom  he  learnt  to  serve. 

CHARLES  KINGSLEY. 

8.  Accomplishments  make  a  woman  valuable  to  herself. 
A  truly  accomplished  woman —  one  whose  thoughts  have 
come   naturally   to   flow   out  in   artistic  forms,  whether 
through  the  instrumentality  of  her  tongue,  her  pen,  her 
pencil,  or  her  piano,  is  a  treasure  to  herself  and  to  society. 
There  maybe  something  to  interfere  with  your  being  all 
this ;  but  this  you  can  do  :  you  can  acquire  thoroughly 
every  accomplishment  for  which  you  have  a  natural  apti- 
tude, or  you  can  let  it  alone.     Do  not  be  content  with  a 
smattering  of  anything.  TIMOTHY  TITCOMB. 

"  I  don't  want  to  be  uncharitable,  and  I  don't  in  the 
least  believe  the  things  people  often  say  about  society; 
but  really,  Lisbeth,  I  have  sometimes  thought  that  the  life 
behind  all  the  glare  and  glitter  was  just  the  least  bit  stupid 
and  hollow.  I  know  I  should  get  dreadfully  tired  of  it,  if 
I  had  nothing  else  to  satisfy  me  ;  no  real  home  life,  and  no 
true,  single-hearted,  close  friends  to  love,  like  you  and 
mamma."  FRANCES  HODGSON  BURNETT. 


AUGUST.  123 

9.  Madame  Recamier  adopted  certain  rules  which  good 
society  has  since  observed.  She  discouraged  the  tete-a-tete 
in  a  low  voice  in  a  mixed  company  ;  if  any  one  in  her  cir- 
cle was  likely  to  have  especial  knowledge,  she  would  ap- 
peal to  him  with  an  air  of  deference  ;  if  anyone  was  shy, 
she  encouraged  him  ;  if  a  mot  was  particularly  happy,  she 
would  take  it  up  and  show  it  to  the  company.  Presiding 
in  her  own  salon,  she  talked  but  little  herself,  but  rather 
exerted  herself  to  draw  others  out ;  without  being  learned, 
she  exercised  great  judgment  in  her  decisions  when  appeals 
were  made  to  her  as  the  presiding  genius.  She  discour- 
aged everything  pedantic  and  pretentious ;  she  dreaded 
exaggerations ;  she  kept  her  company  to  the  subject  under 
discussion  ;  she  would  allow  no  slang  ;  she  insisted  upon 
good  nature  and  amiability  which  more  than  anything  else 
marked  society  in  the  i8th  century. 

JOHN  LORD. 

10.  O,  yes,  girls,  dress  helps,  and  we  are  in  no  mood 
to  dispense  with  it.  We  do  not  want  you  all  to  look  like 
the  inmates  of  an  orphan  asylum, —  green  checked  sun- 
bonnets,  red  calico  dresses,  and  blue  capes  —  O,  no !  But 
let  us  not  forget  that  the  girl  who  wears  a  dress  —  though 
it  may  be  worth  a  thousand  dollars  and  be  stiff  with  gold 
brocade  —  out  of  keeping  with  her  face  and  form,  its  colors 
in  no  way  agreeing,  cannot  compare  favorably  with  that 
other  girl  whose  dress  costs  only  fifteen  dollars  but  which 
in  its  simplicity,  its  fit,  its  fabric,  its  adaptability  to  the 
place  and  time  where  and  when  it  is  worn,  its  air  of  trim- 
ness  and  tastefulness  gives  the  wearer  a  kind  of  classic 
superiority.  A.  H.  R. 


124  AUGUST. 

ii.  The  supreme  advantage  which  modern  society  en- 
joys over  society  five  hundred  years  ago  is  printed  litera- 
ture. There  are  scores  of  blessings  connected  organically 
with  civilization  that  raise  the  plane  of  our  life  ;  but  over 
all  secular  boons  this  one  is  sovereign,  —  the  printing 
press,  which  arrests  and  cheapens,  which  accumulates  and 
scatters,  the  victories  of  genius  and  the  stores  of  intellect- 
ual toil 

Books  are  our  crowning  privilege  in  modern  civilization. 
With  a  taste  for  books  and  music,  let  every  person  thank 
God,  night  and  morning,  that  he  was  not  born  earlier  in 
history. 

T.  STARR  KING. 

Mark,  there.     We  get  no  good 

By  being  ungenerous,  even  to  a  book, 

And  calculating^  profits —  so  much  help 

By  so  much  reading.     It  is  rather  when 

We  gloriously  forget  ourselves  and  plunge 

Soul-forward,  headlong,  into  a  book's  profound, 

Impassioned  for  its  beauty  and  salt  of  truth  — 

Tis  then  we  get  the  right  good  from  a  book. 

MRS.  BROWNING. 

12.  My  young-lady  friends,  of  from  seventeen  upwards, 
your  time  and  the  use  of  it  is  as  essential  to  you  as  to  any 
father  or  brother  of  you  all.  You  are  accountable  for  it 
just  as  much  as  he  is.  If  you  waste  it,  you  waste  not  only 
your  substance,  but  your  very  souls  —  not  that  which  is 
your  own,  but  your  Maker's. 

Miss  MULOCK. 


AUGUST.  125 

13.  Coquettes  are  the  quacks  of  love. 

ROCHEFOUCAULD. 

God  created  the  coquette  as  soon  as  he  had  made  the 

f°o1-  VICTOR  HUGO. 

A  coquette  is  a  young  lady  of  more  beauty  than  sense, 
more  accomplishments  than  learning,  more  charms  of  per- 
son than  graces  of  mind,  more  admirers  than  friends, 
more  fools  than  wise  men  for  attendants. 

LONGFELLOW. 

14.  A  prayer  is  less  a  speaking  than  a  looking  up  and 
listening  to  hear  what  God  will  say. 

MRS.  A.  D.  T.  WHITNEY. 
More  things  are  wrought  by  prayer 
Than  this  world  dreams  of.     Wherefore,  let  thy  voice 
Rise  like  a  fountain  for  me  night  and  day. 
For  what  are  men  better  than  sheep  or  goats 
That  nourish  a  blind  life  within  the  brain, 
If,  knowing  God,  they  lift  not  hands  of  prayer 
Both  for  themselves  and  those  who  call  them  friend  ? 

TENNYSON. 

Child  of  My  love,  "  lean  hard," 
And  let  Me  feel  the  pressure  of  thy  care, 
I  know  thy  burden,  child  ;  I  shaped  it, 
Poised  it  in  Mine  own  hand,  made  no  proportion 
In  its  weight  to  thine  unaided  strength ; 
For  even  as  I  laid  it  on,  I  said, 
"  I  shall  be  near,  and  while  she  leans  on  Me, 
This  burden  shall  be  Mine,  not  hers ." 

PAUL  PASTNOR. 


126  AUGUST. 

15.  Our   appreciation    of    the   beautiful   ought   to   be 
strengthened  by  our  love  of  the  useful  and  our  admiration 
of  labor,  just  as  our  appreciation  of  work  ought  to  be  in- 
creased by  valuing   the  serenity  of  rest.     We  pause   in 
wrapt  wonder  while  we  gaze  from  the  cliffs  on  the  blue 
expanse  of  sea  and  sky,  or  cast  our  eyes  upon  the  beauty 
of  stately  lawns  and  waving  banks  of  wild  flowers,  slop- 
ing down  to  the  rocks.     We  say,  And  this  is  life !    I  live, 
I  walk  in  beauty,  my  soul  is  bathed  in  the  evening  light ! 
But  the  sounds  from  the  neighboring  city  meet  our  ears  — 
steam  whistles,  bells  and  wagons  ;  men  and  girls  go  by 
with  quick  steps  hastening  home  from  the  factories.    Then 
the  thought  comes  to  us  that  labor,  common  labor,  has  a 
beauty  too.     Though  not  so  serene  a  beauty  as  rest  gives, 
not  so  emotional  as  Nature  imparts,  the  loveliness  of  work 
is  more  vigorous,  more  earnest,  more  godlike.     A  girl  who 
lives  aright  knows  not  only  the  joy  of  rest  in  the  beautiful, 
but  of  work  in  the  beautiful,  too.     The  one  makes  her 
gentle,  the  other  makes  her  strong.  A.  H.  R. 

16.  'Tis  raging  noon  ;   and,  vertical,  the  sun 
Darts  on  the  head  direct  his  forceful  rays. 
O'er  heaven  and  earth,  far  as  the  ranging  eye 
Can  sweep,  a  dazzling  deluge  reigns  ;   and  all, 
From  pole  to  pole,  is  undistinguished  blaze. 
Echo  no  more  returns  the  cheerful  sound 

Of  sharpening  scythe  :   the  mower,  sinking,  heaps 
O'er  him  the  humid  hay,  with  flowers  perfumed  ; 
And  scarce  a  chirping  grasshopper  is  heard 
Through  the  dumb  mead. 

THOMSON. 


AUGUST.  127 

17.  Traveller,  what  lies  over  the  hill  ? 

Traveller,  tell  to  me  : 
I  am  only  a  child  —  from  the  window-sill 
Over  I  cannot  see.         GEORGE  MACDONALD. 

This  Universe,  the  grandest  and  loveliest  work  of  nature, 
and  the  Intellect  which  was  created  to  observe  and  to 
admire  it,  are  our  special  and  eternal  possessions,  which 
shall  last  as  long  as  we  last  ourselves.  Cheerful,  there- 
fore, and  erect,  let  us  hasten  with  undaunted  footsteps 
whithersoever  our  fortunes  lead  us.  There  is  no  land 
where  man  cannot  dwell, —  no  land  where  he  cannot  uplift 
his  eyes  unto  heaven  ;  wherever  we  are,  the  distance  of  the 
divine  from  the  human  remains  the  same. 

SENECA. 

18.  Nature  finishes  everything  and  that  makes  a  large 
part  of  her  charm.     Every  little  flower  is  perfect  and  com- 
plete, from  root  to  seed.     Every  leaf  which  will  open  in 
the  next  springtime  will  have  its  little  ribs  and  edges  as 
exactly  and  completely  finished  as  if  it  were  the  only  leaf 
God  intended  to  make  in  the  whole  year. 

Let  us  learn  to  do  everything  as  well  as  we  can.  That 
turns  life  into  art.  The  least  thing  thoroughly  well  done, 
becomes  artistic.  It  is  a  fine  art  to  walk  perfectly  well, 
not  in  the  heavy  mechanical  way  which  most  of  us  walk. 
It  is  a  fine  art  to  speak  well,  to  articulate  distinctly,  to 
pronounce  correctly,  to  use  the  right  word  and  not  the 
wrong  one.  Anything  complete,  rounded,  full,  exact,  gives 
pleasure ;  anything  slovenly,  slip-shod,  unfinished,  is  dis- 
couraging. 

JAMES  FREEMAN  CLARKE. 


128  AUGUST. 

19.  "  You  think  because  my  life  is  rude, 

I  take  no  note  of  sweetness  : 
I  tell  you  love  has  naught  to  do 
With  meetness  or  unmeetness: 

"  Itself  its  best  excuse,  it  asks 

No  leave  of  pride  or  fashion 
When  silken  zone  or  homespun  frock 

It  stirs  with  throbs  of  passion. 

"  The  plaything  of  your  summer  sport, 
The  spells  you  weave  around  me 

You  cannot  at  your  will  undo, 
Nor  leave  me  as  you  found  me."      WHITTIER. 

20.  But  now  let  me  see  what  you  can  do,  girls,  if  you 
will.     Almost  every  one  of  you  spends  a  few  hours  a  week 
in  reading,  and  some  of  you  pour  away  "  oceans  of  time  " 
over  fashionable  fiction.     Why  not  give  just  two  or  three 
little  hours  to  study, —  study  so  pleasant  and  so  arranged 
that  you  may  call  it  reading,  or  recreating,  or  getting  ac- 
quainted with  "  the  best  of  all  good  company  ?  "    After  a 
little  while  you  will  find  these  hours  precious  and  neces- 
sary.   They  will  give  you  rest,  and  a  greater  number  of 
useful  and  pleasant  subjects  to  think  about ;  they  will  af- 
ford you  broader  and  readier  information ;  and  they  will 
deepen  within  you  an  interest  in  the  highest  and  most 
helpful  things  this  life  affords. 

As  far  as  you  can,  in  your  reading  or  studying,  group 
those  subjects  together  which  belong  to  one  another.  Your 
knowledge  will  thus  become  more  thorough  and  your  in- 
terest more  absorbing.  A.  H.  R. 


AUGUST.  129 

21.  A  man  without  religion  is  to  be  pitied,  but  a  god- 
less woman  is  a  horror  above  all  things. 

GEORGE  ELIOT. 

Life  is  valuable  only  so  far  as  it  serves  for  the  religious 
education  of  the  heart.  MME>  DE  STAEL. 

Here  is  the  great,  last  certainty.  Be  sure  of  God.  With 
simple,  loving  worship,  by  continual  obedience,  by  purify- 
ing yourself  even  as  He  is  pure,  creep  close  to  Him,  keep 
close  to  Him.  Be  sure  of  God  and  nothing  can  overthrow 
or  drown  you.  PHILLIPS  BROOKS. 

22.  There  are  many  little  things  in  the  household,  at- 
tention to  which  is  indispensable  to  health  and  happiness. 
Cleanliness  consists  in  attention  to  a  number  of  apparent 
trifles  —  the  scrubbing  of  a  floor,  the  dusting  of  a  chair, 
the  cleansing  of  a  tea-cup,  but  the  general  result  of  the 
whole  is  an  atmosphere  of  moral  and  physical  well-being  — 
a  condition  favorable  to  the  highest  growth  of  human 
character.     The  kind  of  air  which  circulates  in  a  house 
may  seem  a  small  matter,  for  we  cannot  see  the  air,  and 
few  people  know  anything  about  it ;  yet  if  we  do  not  pro- 
vide a  regular  supply  of  pure  air  within  our  houses,  we 
shall  inevitably  suffer  for  our  neglect.     A  few  specks  of 
dirt  may  seem  neither  here  nor  there,  and  a  closed  door  or 
window  would   appear  to  make  little  difference  ;   but  it 
may  make  the  difference   of   a  life   destroyed  by  fever  ; 
and  therefore  the  little  dirt  and  the  little  bad  air  are  really 
very  serious  matters.  SMILES. 


130  AUGUST. 

23.  After  all,  it  doesn't  so  much  signify  what  you  may 
do  as  that  you  do  it  well,  whatever  it  may  be.     For  the 
value  of  skilled  labor  is  estimated  on  a  democratic  basis, 
nowadays.     President  Eliot,  of  Harvard  University,  the 
cook  in  the  Parker  House  restaurant,  and  Mary  L.  Booth, 
who  edits  Harper's  Bazar,  each  receive  four  thousand  dol- 
lars per  year.  FRANCES  E.  WILLARD. 

24.  "  Little  Ellie  in  her  smile 

Chooseth    ...     I  will  have  a  lover, — 

And  the  steed  shall  be  red-roan, 
And  the  lover  shall  be  noble, 
With  an  eye  that  takes  the  breath, 
And  the  lute  he  plays  upon 
Shall  strike  ladies  into  trouble, 
As  his  sword  strikes  men  to  death. 

And  the  steed  it  shall  be  shod 

All  in  silver,  housed  in  azure, 

And  the  mane  shall  swim  the  wind : 

And  the  hoofs  along  the  sod 

Shall  flash  onward  and  keep  measure, 

Till  the  shepherds  look  behind. 

But  my  lover  will  not  prize 

All  the  glory  that  he  rides  in 

When  he  gazes  in  my  face 

He  will  say,  "  O  Love,  thine  eyes 

Build  the  shrine  my  soul  abides  in ; 

And  I  kneel  here  for  thy  grace." 

MRS.  BROWNING. 


AUGUST.  131 

25.  Ourselves  become  our  own  best  sacrifice. 

CRASHAV/. 

A  vague  feeling  of  kindness  toward  our  fellow-crea- 
tures is  no  state  of  mind  to  rest  in.  It  is  not  enough 
for  us  to  be  able  to  say  that  nothing  of  human  interest  is 
alien  to  us,  and  that  we  give  our  acquiescence,  or  indeed 
our  transient  assistance,  to  any  scheme  of  benevolence  that 
may  come  in  our  way.  No  :  in  promoting  the  welfare  of 
others  we  must  toil ;  we  must  devote  to  it  earnest  thought, 
constant  care,  and  zealous  endeavor.  What  is  more,  we 
must  do  all  this  with  patience ;  and  be  ready,  in  the  same 
cause,  to  make  an  habitual  sacrifice  of  our  own  tastes  and 
wishes.  ARTHUR  HELPS. 

26.  "  Marryin'  a  man  ain't  like  settin'  alongside  of  him 
nights  and  hearin'  him  talk  pretty ;    that's  the  fust  prayer 
There's  lots  an*  lots  o'  meetin'  after  that !  " 

ROSE  TERRY  COOKE. 

Do  you  remember  the  infatuation  of  "Guenn"?  how 
neither  the  good  priest,  nor  her  own  people  —  no,  nor  her 
reason  —  could  prevail  ?  And  then  do  you  remember  the 
end?  Pass  quickly  through  the  adoration  of  a  mere  mor- 
tal, allow  some  chances  for  faults  in  yourselves  and  those 
you  worship,  and  do  not  turn  your  hearts  bitterly  against 
common  sense.  Ideals  which  grow  upon  us  are  stronger 
than  those  recommended  by  a  first  glance.  A.  H.  R. 

I  remember  one  day,  when  Lady  Oldtower  was  suggest- 
ing —  half  jest,  half  earnest,  "  better  any  marriage  than  no 
marriage  at  all ;  "  Maud's  father  replied  very  seriously  — 
"  Better  no  marriage,  than  any  marriage  that  is  less  than 
the  best."  Miss  MULOCK. 


132  AUGUST. 

27.  Mother  says   that  neither   she  nor   her  daughter 
shall  ever  offer  wine  to  any  young  man  under  her  roof. 

LOUISA  M.  ALCOTT. 

The  foaming,  sparkling  cup  which  you,  with  arch  smiles 
and  graces,  are  handing  to  your  guest,  may  be  that  critical 
one  which  will  consign  him  to  a  drunkard's  grave,  his  wife 
to  a  mad-house,  his  children  to  lives  of  penury,  sickness 
and  sorrow. 

A  single  dose  of  alcoholic  tonics,  given  as  a  medicine, 
may  revive  the  fatal  passion  of  half-cured  drunkards,  and 
forfeit  their  hard-earned  chance  of  recovery. 

FRANCES  E.  WILLARD. 

28.  All  great  men  have  lived  by  hope.     Not  what  they 
saw,  but  what  they  believed  in,  made  their  strength. 

The  power  which  moves  the  world  is  hope.  An  anxious 
doubtful,  timid  man  can  accomplish  little.  Fear  unnerves 
as  ;  hope  inspires  us.  If,  then,  we  wish  to  cultivate  and 
strengthen  our  hope,  it  must  be  by  increasing  our  faith  in 
goodness. 

The  path  of  progress  for  each  individual  soul  lies  along 
this  highway  of  hope.  JAMES  FREEMAN  CLARKE. 

So  take  Joy  home, 

And  make  a  place  in  thy  great  heart  for  her, 
And  give  her  time  to  grow,  and  cherish  her ; 
Then  will  she  come,  and  oft  will  sing  to  thee, 
When  thou  art  working  in  the  furrows,  ay, 
Or  weeding  in  the  sacred  hour  of  dawn. 
It  is  a  comely  fashion  to  be  glad  — 
Joy  is  a  grace  we  say  to  God. 

JEAN  INGELOW. 


AUGUST.  133 

29.  There  are  thousands  of  men  in  our  (English)  army 
and  navy,  and  in  all  our  industries,  who  have  reason  to 
bless  the  name  of  Mary  Carpenter.    Armed  with  purity  of 
purpose,  she  went  into  courts  and  alleys  through  which  a 
policeman  could  scarcely  walk.     Nothing  daunted,  nothing 
disgusted  her. 

There  is  a  great  deal  of  heroism  in  common  life 
that  is  never  known.  There  is,  perhaps,  more  heroism 
among  the  poor  than  among  the  rich.  ...  A  street 
beggar  said  that  he  always  got  more  coppers  from  the  poor 
shop  girls  than  from  anybody  else.  SMILES. 

It  is  nobler  far  to  do  the  most  commonplace  duty  in  the 
household,  or  behind  the  counter,  with  a  single  eye  to  duty, 
simply  because  it  must  be  done ;  nobler  far,  I  say,  than  to 
go  out  of  your  way  to  attempt  a  brilliant  deed,  with  a  dou- 
ble mind  and  saying  to  yourself  not  only  —  "  This  will  be 
a  brilliant  deed,"  but  also  —  "  and  it  will  pay  me,  or  raise 
me,  or  set  me  off,  into  the  bargain."  Heroism  knows  no 
"  into  the  bargain."  CHARLES  KINGSLEY. 

30.  She  had  Albani  Cupids  and  Correggio's  floating 
angel  —  heads  painted  on  the  walls  of  her  pretty  boudoir, 
and  no  doubt  her  studies   of  such   artlessness  were  not 
without  effect  in   producing   her  dewy  infantine  smiles. 
There  was  much  that   she  knew,  this   wise  and  foolish 
woman.     But  nevertheless,  some  simple  and  useful  facts 
escaped  her.     She   did  not  know,  for   instance,  that  a 
young  heart  holds  the  essence  of  youth  in  a  woman's  face 
in  defiance  of  wrinkles  and  gray  hair.     She  did  not  know 
that  the  world's  imprint  on  her  own  spirit  must  sooner  or 
later  work  itself  out  into  her  face,  despite  her  cherubic 
studies.  BLANCHE  WILLIS  HOWARD. 


134  AUGUST. 

31.  Patience  is  the  truest  sign  of  courage.  Ask  old 
soldiers,  who  have  seen  real  war,  and  they  will  tell  you 
that  the  bravest  men,  the  men  who  endured  best,  not  in 
mere  fighting,  but  in  standing  still  for  hours  to  be  mowed 
down  by  cannon  shot ;  who  were  most  cheerful  and  patient 
in  shipwreck,  and  starvation,  and  defeat  —  all  things  ten 
times  worse  than  fighting  — ask  old  soldiers,  I  say,  and 
they  will  tell  you  that  the  men  who  showed  best  in  such 
miseries  were  generally  the  stillest  and  meekest  men  in 
the  whole  regiment,  that  is  true  fortitude  ;  that  is  Christ's 
image  — the  meekest  of  men,  and  the  bravest  too. 

CHARLES  KINGSLEY. 

Already  the  nestling  sparrows 

Are  clothed  in  a  mist  of  gray, 
And  under  the  breast  of  the  swallow 

The  warm  eggs  stir  to-day. 

Already  the  cricket  is  busy 

With  hints  of  soberer  days, 
And  the  golden-rod  lights  slowly 

Its  torch  for  the  autumn  blaze. 

O  brief,  bright  smile  of  summer  ! 

O  days  divine  and  dear ! 
The  voices  of  winter's  sorrow 

Already  we  can  hear. 

CELIA  THAXTER. 


SEPTEMBER. 

1.  So  here  hath  been  dawning 

Another  blue  day : 
Think  wilt  thou  let  it 
Slip  useless  away. 

Out  of  Eternity 

This  new  day  is  born; 
Into  Eternity, 

At  night,  will  return. 

Behold  it  aforetime 

No  eye  ever  did; 
So  soon  it  for  ever 

From  all  eyes  is  hid. 

Here  hath  been  dawning 

Another  blue  Day : 
Think  wilt  thou  let  it 

Slip  useless  away  ?  CARLYLE. 

2.  Improved  cooking-stoves  and  Mrs.  Cornelius  have 
made  the  culinary  art  such  a  path  of  roses  that  it  is  hardly 
now  included  in  early  training,  but  deferred  till  after  mat- 
rimony.    Yet  bread-making   in   well-ventilated    kitchens 
and  sweeping  in  open-windowed  rooms  are  calisthenics  so 
bracing  that  one  grudges  them  to  the  Irish  maidens,  whose 
round  and  comely  arms  betray  so  much  less  need  of  their 
tonic  influence  than  the  shrunken  muscles  exhibited  so 
freely  by  our  short-sleeved  belles 

T.    W.   HlGGINSON- 
135 


136  SEPTEMBER. 

3.  You  are  not,  under  the  pretense  of  exercise,  to  unfit 
yourself  for  the  duties  of  the  day.     I  once  knew  a  club  of 
young  enthusiasts,  men  and  women,  who  used  to  walk  be- 
fore breakfast,  summer  mornings.     It  is  an  exquisite  time 
of  day,  and  they  had  what  the  New  England  dialect  calls 
"  beautiful  times."     But  when  they  came  back,  after  two 
or  three  hours,  and  ate  a  sumptuous  breakfast,  as  they 
used  to,  they  found'  themselves  quite  unfit  for  the  duties 
of  the  day,  for  making  clothes,  writing  sermons,  advising 
clients,  or  painting  pictures.     This  is  what  in  slang  phrase 
is  called  "  running  exercise  into  the  ground."     Such  exer- 
cise is  no  longer  preparation  for  living.     Remember  all 
along,  that  our  business  is  to  keep  the  body  up  to  the  high- 
est point,  that  we  may  get  from  it  all  the  work  we  can. 

EDWARD  EVERETT  HALE. 

4.  "  The  higher  life  begins  for  us,  my  daughter,  when  we 
renounce  our  own  will  to  bow  before  a  Divine  law.    That 
seems  hard  to  you.     It  is  the  portal  of  wisdom,  and  free- 
dom, and  blessedness.     And  the  symbol  of  it  hangs  before 
you.     That  wisdom  is  the  religion  of  the  Cross." 

GEORGE  ELIOT. 

Every  heart  must  learn  to  beat, 
As  every  robin  learns  to  trill, — 

And  every  life  be  made  complete, 
Led  upward  by  a  higher  will. 

DORA  R.  GOODALE. 

Be  quiet,  O  my  soul! 

My  Master's  hand  is  on  me  now ;  I  must  obey  His  will. 
His  hand  is  very  strong  ;  His  word  He  must  fulfil. 

J.  M.  S. 


SEPTEMBER.  137 

5.  On  the  day  after  Florence  Nightingale's  arrival  in 
the  Crimea,  six  hundred  wounded  men  were  brought  in, 
and  the   number  increased  until  there  were  over   three 
thousand  under  her  immediate  charge.     One  of  the  gen- 
tlest and  tenderest  of  women,  she  surveyed  the  scene  of 
confusion  and  anguish  with  unruffled  mind,  and  issued 
her  orders  with  perfect  calmness.     During  the  first  week 
she  was  known  to  stand  twenty  consecutive  hours,  directing 
the  labor  of  men  and  women.     She  established  a  washing 
house,  and  a  kitchen  in  which  hundreds  of  gallons  of  beef 
tea  were  made  daily.     She  understood  the  art  of  husband- 
ing labor.     Her  nerve  was  wonderful.     She  was   more 
than  equal  to  the  trial  of  severe  surgical  operations.     The 
more  awful  to  every  sense  any  particular  case,  the  more 
surely  would  her  slight  form  be  seen  bending  over  him, 
until  death  released  him.     No  wonder  the  soldiers  kissed 
her  shadow  as  it  passed  their  beds.        JAMES  PARTON. 

6.  What  shall  I  see  if  I  ever  go 
Over  the  mountains  high  ? 

Now,  I  can  see  but  the  peaks  of  snow, 
Crowning  the  cliffs  where  the  pine-trees  grow, 

Waiting  and  longing  to  rise 

Nearer  the  beckoning  skies. 

Once,  I  know,  I  shall  journey  far 

Over  the  mountains  high. 
Lord,  is  thy  door  already  ajar  ?  — 
Dear  is  the  home  where  thy  saved  ones  are  ;  — 

But  bar  it  awhile  from  me, 

And  help  me  to  long  for  Thee. 

BJORNSON. 


138  SEPTEMBER. 

7.  People  are  better  than  we  fancy,  and  have  more  in 
them  than  we  fancy ;  and  if  they  do  not  show  that  they 
have,  it  is  three  times  out  of  four  our  own  fault.     Instead 
of  esteeming  them  better  than  ourselves,  and  asking  their 
advice,  and  calling  out  their  experience,  we  are  too  often 
in  such  a  hurry  to  show  them  that  we  are  better  than  they, 
and  to  thrust  our  advice  upon  them,  that  we  give  them  no 
encouragement  to  speak,  often  no  time  to  speak;  and  so 
they  are  silent  and  think  the  more,  and  remain  shut  up  in 
themselves,  and  often  pass  for  stupider  people  than  they 
are.     Because  we  will  not  begin  by  doing  justice  to  our 
neighbors,  we  prevent  them  doing  justice  to  themselves. 

CHARLES  KINGSLEY. 

8.  Suppose  you  are  studying  English  Literature.     Be 
watchful,  first,  for  the  writer's  ideas ;  be  sure  you  get  his 
thoughts,  not  such  as  some  one  else  says  are  his,  accord- 
ing  to  some  one's  else  interpretation ;  then  observe  the 
manner  in  which  those  ideas  are  expressed.     The  merits 
of  a  literary  work  lie  quite  as  much  in  the  style  as  in  the 
thoughts  which  it  contains. 

You  may  be  reading  George  Eliot's  "  Romola."  Be  sure, 
when  the  book  ends,  that  you  see  somewhat  the  purpose 
for  which  it  was  written.  Be  impressed  with  its  story: 
follow  its  wonderful  descriptions,  its  analysis  of  character; 
remark  the  knowledge  brought  to  bear  in  representing 
that  great  historical  character  Savonarola,  the  Florentine 
republic,  and  the  rule  of  the  De  Medicis  ;  be  moved  by  the 
pathos  of  the  story,  its  dignity  and  beauty ;  but  remember 
most  that  she  who  begins  with  virtue,  grows,  though 
through  fires  of  tribulation,  into  a  radiant,  clear,  crystal 
womanhood.  A.  H.  R. 


SEPTEMBER.  139 

9.  Dorothy  Wordsworth  [the  poet's  sister]  numbered 
eighty-four  years  without  a  winter  in  her  heart. 

MRS.  L.  H.  SIGOURNEY. 

You  find  yourself  refreshed  by  the  presence  of  cheerful 
people ;  why  not  make  earnest  effort  to  confer  that  pleas- 
ure on  others?  You  will  find  half  the  battle  is  gained 
if  you  never  allow  yourself  to  say  anything  gloomy. 

LYDIA  MARIA  CHILD. 

There  is  no  beautifier  of  complexion,  or  form,  or  be- 
havior, like  the  wish  to  scatter  joy  and  not  pain  around 
us.  EMERSON. 

10.  "But  I   can't  give   up  wishing,"  said  Philip,  im- 
patiently.    "  It  seems  to  me   we  can  never  give  up  long- 
ing and  wishing  while  we  are  thoroughly  alive.     There  are 
certain  things  we  feel  to  be  beautiful  and  good,  and  we 
must  hunger  after  them.  GEORGE  ELIOT. 

We  are  ever  looking  to  something  better  than  we  have 
or  are,  and  whether  we  attain  it  or  lose  it,  there  is  no  rest 
for  our  feet.  It  is  the  man  who  is  fooled  or  deluded  that 
is  to  be  pitied.  He  who  finds  life  and  self  sufficient  is 
either  a  monster  or  a  caricature.  A.  S.  HARDY. 

You  say,  "  In  childhood  you  fancy  there's  such  a  good 
time  for  you  in  the  world."  I  know  it.  The  trees  and 
flowers  promise  it,  and  the  blue  sky  and  the  stars.  But 
after  long  years  of  disappointment  (we  are  twenty-two 
now!),  when  you  are  perhaps  giving  up  and  thinking  it  is 
all  a  cheat,  you  turn  and  find  it  in  your  own  heart !  Right 
there,  Di,  shut  in  like  honey  in  a  cell.  I  suppose  the 
"  peace  that  passeth  all  understanding  "  is  the  name  for 
it,  and  when  it  comes  to  you  so  softly,  then  the  old  glamour 
is  over  every  thing  again,  just  as  it  was  far  away  in  your 
childhood,  SOPHIE  MAY. 


140  SEPTEMBER. 

11.  "  The  Length  and  the  Breadth  and  the  Height  of 
it  are  equal." 

These  are  the  three  dimensions  of  the  human  life,  its 
length,  its  breadth,  its  height.  The  life  which  has  only 
length,  only  intensity  of  ambition,  is  narrow.  The  life 
that  has  length  and  breadth,  intense  ambition  and  broad 
humanity,  is  thin.  It  is  like  a  great,  flat  plain,  of  which 
one  wearies,  and  which  sooner  or  later  wearies  of  itself. 
The  life  which  to  its  length  and  breadth  adds  height, — 
which  to  its  personal  ambition  and  sympathy  with  man, 
adds  the  love  and  obedience  of  God,  completes  itself  into 
the  cube  of  the  eternal  city  and  is  the  life  complete. 

PHILLIPS  BROOKS. 

12.  I  think  Hans  Andersen's  story  of  the  cobweb  cloth 
woven  so  fine  that  it  was  invisible,  —  woven  for  the  king's 
garment,  —  must  mean  manners,  which  do  really  clothe  a 
princely  nature.     Such  a  one  can  well  go  in  a  blanket,  if 
he  would.     In   the  gymnasium  or  on  the  sea-beach  his 
superiority  does  not  leave  him.  EMERSON. 

In  effective  womanly  beauty  form  is  more  than  face, 
and  manner  more  than  either.  ANON. 

We  cannot  always  oblige,  but  we  can  always  speak 
obligingly.  VOLTAIRE. 

Fine  manners  are  a  stronger  bond  than  a  beautiful  face  ; 
the  former  bind,  the  latter  only  attracts. 

LAMARTINE. 

Her  air  had  a  meaning,  her  movements  a  grace ; 
You  turned  from  the  fairest  to  gaze  on  her  face. 

MRS.  BROWNING. 


SEPTEMBER.  141 

13.  To  enjoy  life  thoroughly  we  need  daily  to  mingle 
the  ideal  with  the  real.    You  know  some  girls  fancy  them- 
selves the  most  practical  people  the  sun  shines  on,  but  on 
their  way  to  school,  to  work,  or  to  market,  they  will  stop 
to  pick  a  wayside  flower,   to   admire  a  fleecy  cloud,  to 
catch  a  glimpse  of  a  picture  in  a  shop-window;  or  they 
will  linger  a  moment   to   cast  an  admiring  look  at   the 
charming  new  neighbor  who  has  just  passed  on.     So  with 
their  practical  estimate  of  what  butter  and  eggs  ought  to 
cost,  with  their  lists  of  Latin  prepositions  which  they  have 
but  lately  learned  there  creep  into  the  mind  wonderful 
shapes  of  beauty  and  visions  of  adorable  friends.     Keep 
on  drawing  halos  about  the  heads  of  your  friends,  keep  on 
delighting  in  clouds  and  flowers ;  that  kind  of   sentiment 
you  will  need  later  to  make  your  hearts  as  full   as   your 
minds.  A.  H.  R. 

14.  Through  suffering  and  sorrow  thou  hast  passed 
To  show  us  what  a  woman  true  may  be  : 
They  have  not  taken  sympathy  from  thee, 

Nor  made  thee  any  other  than  thou  wast, 

Save  as  some  tree,  which,  in  a  sudden  blast, 

Sheddeth  those  blossoms  which  are  weakly  grown, 

Upon  the  air,  but  keepeth  every  one 

Whose  strength  gives  warrant  of  good  fruit  at  last : 

So  thou  hast  shed  some  blooms  of  gayety, 

But  never  one  of  steadfast  cheerfulness  ; 

Nor  hath  thy  knowledge  of  adversity 

Robbed  thee  of  any  faith  in  happiness, 

But  rather  cleared  thine  inner  eyes  to  see 

How  many  simple  ways  there  are  to  bless. 

J.  R.  LOWELL. 


142  SEPTEMBER. 

15.  There  are  two  kinds  of   neatness:   one  is  too  evi- 
dent, and  makes  every  thing  about  it  seem  trite  and  cold 
and  stiff,  and  another  kind  of   neatness   disappears  from 
our  sight  in  a  satisfied  sense  of  completeness  —  like  some 
exquisite,  simple,  finished  style  of  writing  —  an  Addison's 
or  a  St.  Pierre's.  BULWER. 

We  hear  a  great  deal  about  graceful  dancing,  pretty 
faces,  bright  talkers,  as  well  as  the  dearer  charms  of  good 
scholarship,  —  not  to  mention  the  virtues  of  base  ball  and 
tennis  grounds  —  but  seldom,  I  fear,  can  the  most  eager 
ears  catch  the  old-fashioned  compliment  "  Such  charming 
manners !  " 

"  The  manners  of  children  at  home,"  said  Mrs.  Sharpe, 
"  form  the  very  foundation  stone  of  society.  We  all 
know  that  politeness  is  defined  to  be  'kindness  of  heart ' ; 
and  the  desire  to  do  always  and  to  every  one  the  best 
thing  in  one's  power,  make  first  a  good  son  or  daughter, 
afterwards  a  good  husband  or  wife,  and  then  a  good 
citizen."  MOTHERS  IN  COUNCIL. 

1 6.  We  cannot  easily  overrate  the  influence  of  those 
who  improve  the  social  circle.     They  give  not  only  the 
greatest  pleasure  which  is  known  to  cultivated  minds,  but 
kindle  lofty  sentiments 

When  woman  accomplishes  such  results  she  fills  no 
ordinary  sphere,  she  performs  no  ordinary  mission  ;  she 
rises  in  dignity  as  she  declines  in  physical  attractions. 
Like  a  queen  of  beauty  at  the  tournament,  she  bestows 
the  rewards  which  distinguished  excellence  has  won  ;  she 
breaks  up  the  distinctions  of  rank ;  she  destroys  preten- 
tious ;  she  kills  self-conceit ;  she  even  gains  consideration 
for  her  husband  or  brother.  JOHN  LORD. 


SEPTEMBER.  143 

17.  However  good  you  may  be,  you  have  faults  ;  how- 
ever dull  you  may  be,  you  can  find  out  what  some  of  them 
are ;  and  however  slight   they   may  be,   you   had   better 
make  some  —  not  too  painful,  but  patient  —  effort  to  get 
quit  of  them.     So  far  as  you  have  confidence  in  me  at  all, 
trust  me  for  this,  that  how  many  soever  you  may  find  or 
fancy  your  faults  to  be,  there  are  only  two  that  are  of  real 
consequence,  —  Idleness  and  Cruelty.  RUSKIN. 

18.  Listen  to  the  story  of  a  simple  shepherd,  given  in 
his  own  words  :  —  I  forget  now  who  it  was  that  once  said 
to  me,  "  Jean  Baptiste,  you  are  very  poor  ? "  —  True.  —  "  If 
you  fell  ill,  your  wife  and  children  would  be  destitute  ?  "  — 
True.     And  then  I  felt  anxious  and  uneasy  for  the  rest  of 
the  day. 

At  Evensong,  wiser  thoughts  came  to  me,  and  I  said 
to  myself :  Jean  Baptiste,  for  more  than  thirty  years  you 
have  lived  in  the  world,  you  have  never  possessed  any- 
thing, yet  still  you  live  on,  and  have  been  provided  each 
day  with  nourishment,  each  night  with  repose.  Of  trouble 
God  has  never  sent  you  more  than  your  share.  Of  help, 
the  means  have  never  failed  you.  To  whom  do  you  owe 
all  this  ?  To  God.  Jean  Baptiste,  be  no  longer  ungrate- 
ful, and  banish  those  anxious  thoughts  ;  for  what  could 
ever  induce  you  to  think  that  the  Hand  from  which  you 
have  already  received  so  much,  would  close  against  you 
when  you  grow  old,  and  have  greater  need  of  help  ?  I 
finished  my  prayer,  and  felt  at  peace.  GOLD  DUST. 

'  Let  others  miss  me  ! 
Never  miss  me,  God ! ' 

MRS.  BROWNING. 


144  SEPTEMBER. 

19.  To  learn  never  to  waste  our  time  is  perhaps  one 
of  the  most  difficult  virtues  to  acquire. 

A  well-spent  day  is  a  source  of  pleasure.  To  be  con- 
stantly employed,  and  never  asking,  "  What  shall  I  do  ?  " 
is  the  secret  of  much  goodness  and  happiness. 

Begin  then  with  promptitude,  act  decisively,  persevere, 
if  interrupted,  be  amiable,  and  return  to  the  work  unruffled, 
finish  it  carefully,  —  these  will  be  the  signs  of  a  virtuous 
soul.  GOLD  DUST. 

If  it  is  not  right,  do  not  do  it ;  if  it  is  not  true,  do  not 
say  it.  MARCUS  AURELIUS. 

20.  Winds  may  blow  and  skies  may  rain,  fortune  may 
prove  unkind,  days  may  be  lonely  and  evenings  dull ;  but 
for  the  true  lover  of  reading  there  is  always  at  hand  this 
great  company  of  companions  and  friends, —  the  wisest, 
the  gentlest,  the  best,  —  never  too  tired  or  too  busy  to 
talk  with  him,  ready  at  all  moments  to  give  their  thought, 
their  teaching,  to  help,  instruct,  and  entertain.    They  never 
disappoint,  they  have   no   moods   or   tempers,   they  are 
always   at   home,  —  in   all  of  which  respects  they  differ 
from   the   rest   of  our   acquaintance.      If   the  man   who 
invented  sleep  is  to  be  blessed,  thrice  blessed  be  the  man 
who  invented  printing.  SUSAN  COOLIDGE. 

Books  are  men  of  higher  stature.      MRS.  BROWNING. 

The  days  of  blue-stockings  are  over;  it  is  a  notable  fact 
that  the  best  housekeepers,  the  neatest  needle-women,  the 
most  discreet  managers  of  their  own  and  others'  affairs, 
are  ladies  whose  names  the  world  cons  over  in  library  lists 
and  exhibition  catalogues.  Miss  MULOCK. 


SEPTEMBER.  145 

21.  The  vanity  of  loving  fine  clothes  and  new  fashions, 
and  valuing  ourselves  by  them,  is  one  of  the  most  childish 
pieces  of  folly  that  can  be.  SIR  MATTHEW  HALE. 

Those  who  are  incapable  of  shining  but  by  dress  would 
do  well  to  consider  that  the  contrast  between  them  and 
their  clothes  turns  out  much  to  their  disadvantage. 

SHENSTONE. 

As  long  as  there  are  cold  and  nakedness  in  the  land 
around  you,  so  long  can  there  be  no  question  at  all  but  that 
splendor  of  dress  is  a  crime.  In  due  time,  when  we  have 
nothing  better  to  set  people  to  work  at,  it  may  be  right  to 
let  them  make  lace  and  cut  jewels ;  but  as  long  as  there 
are  any  who  have  no  blankets  for  their  beds,  and  no  rags 
for  their  bodies,  so  long  it  is  blanket-making  and  tailoring 
we  must  set  people  to  work  at,  not  lace.  RUSKIN. 

22  And  pray  be  mindful  of  the  way  you  look  at  things. 
Do  not  try  to  see  evil ;  have  on  your  kind  eyes,  magnify 
every  dot  of  goodness.  Ruskin  says,  "In  all  things 
throughout  the  world,  the  men  who  look  for  the  crooked 
will  see  the  crooked,  and  the  men  who  look  for  the 
straight  will  see  the  straight."  And  George  Eliot  tells 
us  to  "  Put  a  good  face  on  it  and  don't  seem  to  be  looking 
out  for  crows,  else  you'll  set  other  people  to  watchin'  for 
'em  to."  Try  especially  to  see  what  is  good  in  your  own  lot. 

"  Count  up  your  mercies,"  girls,  and  see  how  many  they 
are,  then  count  up  your  chances  for  receiving  more  mercies 
and  find  out  how  even  more  numerous  they  are.  If  you 
do  not  get  any  comfort  out  of  this,  why,  you  haven't 
counted  right,  you  have  left  hundreds  uncounted.  Then 
look  closer  and  try  it  over  again.  A.  H.  R. 


146  SEPTEMBER. 

23.  I  believe  in  rewards  of  a  certain  kind,  especially  for 
young  folks.     They  help  us  along  ;  and  although  we  may 
begin  by  being  good  for  the  sake  of  the  reward,  if  it  is 
rightly  used,  we  shall  soon  learn  to  love  goodness  for 
itself.  LOUISA  M.  ALCOTT. 

It  is  what  we  are,  not  what  we  have,  that  makes  one 
human  being  superior  to  another. 

LOUISA  M.  ALCOTT. 

People  don't  grow  famous  in  a  hurry,  and  it  takes  a 
deal  of  hard  work  even  to  earn  your  bread  and  butter. 

LOUISA  M.  ALCOTT. 
The  characteristic  of  heroism  is  its  persistency. 

EMERSON. 

24.  The  old  postmaster  of  the  town  to  which  her  letter 
was  directed  took  it  up  to  stamp,  and  read  on  the  enve- 
lope the  direction  to  "  Miss  Lulu  Pinrow."     He  brought 
the  stamp  down  with  a  vicious   emphasis,  coming  very 
near  blotting  out  the  nursery  name,  instead  of  cancelling 
the  postage-stamp.     "  Lulu  !  "  he  exclaimed.     "  I  should 
like  to  know  if  that  great  strapping  girl  isn't  out  of  her 
cradle  yet !     I  suppose  Miss  Louisa  will  think  that   be- 
longs to  her,  but  I  saw  her  christened,  and  I  heard  the 
name  the  minister  gave  her,  and  it  wasn't  '  Lulu,'  or  any 
such  baby   nonsense."     .     .     .     Why  a  grown-up  young 
woman  allowed  herself  to  be  cheapened  in  the  way  so 
many  of  them  do  by  the  use  of  names  which  become  them, 
as  well  as  the  frock  of  a  ten-year-old  schoolgirl  would 
become  a  graduate  of  the  Cprinna  Institute,  the  old  postr 
master  could  not  guess,  —  He  was  a  queer  old  man. 

OLIVER  WENDELL  HOLMES, 


SEPTEMBER.  147 

25.  There  are  briers  besetting  every  path, 

Which  call  for  patient  care; 
There  is  a  cross  in  every  lot, 

And  an  earnest  need  for  prayer ; 
But  a  lonely  heart  that  leans  on  thee 

Is  happy  anywhere. 

In  a  service  which  thy  love  appoints, 

There  are  no  bonds  for  me  ; 
For  my  secret  heart  is  taught  "  the  truth  " 

That  makes  thy  children  "  free ;  " 
And  a  life  of  self-renouncing  love 

Is  a  life  of  liberty.        ANNA  L.  WARING. 

26.  It  is  of  little  consequence  how  many  positions  of 
cities  a  woman  knows,  or  how  many  dates  of  events,  or 
how  many   names  of  celebrated  persons  —  it  is  not   the 
object   of  education  to  turn  a  woman  into  a   dictionary. 
But  it  is  deeply  necessary  that  she  should  be  taught  to 
enter   with   her   whole   personality  into   the  history  she 
reads,  —  to  picture  the  passages  of  it  vitally  in  her  own 
bright  imagination  ;  to  apprehend,  with  her  fine  instincts, 
the   pathetic   circumstances    and   the  dramatic   relations 
which  the  historian  too  often  only  eclipses  by  his  reason- 
ing, and  disconnects  by  his  arrangements.     It  is  for  her  to 
trace  the  hidden  equities  of  divine  reward,  and  catch  sight 
through  the  darkness,  of  the  fateful  threads  of  woven  fire 
that  connect  error  with  its  retribution. 

But,  chiefly  of  all,  she  is  to  be  taught  to  extend  the 
limits  of  her  sympathy  with  respect  to  that  history  which 
is  being  for  her  determined,  ....  and  to  the  eon- 
temporary  calamity  which,  were  it  but  rightly  mourned  by 
her,  would  recur  no  more  hereafter.  RUSKIN. 


148  SEPTEMBER. 

27.  Love  thyself  last;  cherish  those  hearts  that  hate 

thee. 

Corruption  wins  not  more  than  honesty. 
Still  in  thy  right  hand  carry  gentle  peace, 
To  silence  envious  tongues  ;  be  just,  and  fear  not. 

SHAKESPEARE. 

But  God  shapes  all  our  fitness,  and  gives  each  man 
his  meaning,  even  as  he  guides  the  wavering  lines  of 
snow  descending.  Our  Eliza  was  meant  for  books  ;  our 
dear  Annie  for  loving  and  cooking ;  I,  John  Ridd,  for 
sheep,  and  wrestling,  and  the  thought  of  Lorna ;  and 
mother  to  love  all  three  of  us,  and  to  make  the  best  of 
her  children.  R.  D.  BLACKMORE. 

Nothing  useless  is,  or  low  ; 

Each  thing  in  its  place  is  best ; 
And  what  seems  but  idle  show 
Strengthens  and  supports  the  rest. 

LONGFELLOW. 

28.  Let  the  maiden  with  erect  soul,  walk  serenely  on 
her  way,  accept  the  hint  of  each  new  experience,  search 
in  turn  all  the  objects  that  solicit  her  eye,  that  she  may 
learn  the  power  and  the  charm  of  her  new-born  being, 
which  is  the  kindling  of  a  new  dawn  in  the  recesses  of 
space.     The  fair  girl,  who  repels  inteference  by  a  decided 
and  proud  choice  of  influences,  so  careless  of  pleasing,  so 
lofty,  inspires  every  beholder  with  somewhat  of  her  own 
nobleness.     The  silent  heart  encourages  her ;  O  friend, 
never  strike  sail  to  a  fear!     Come  into  port  greatly,  or 
sail  with  God  the  seas.     Not  in  vain  you  live,  for  every 
passing  eye  is  cheered  and  refined  by  the  vision. 

EMERSON. 


SEPTEMBER.  149 

29.  "  I'm  glad  one  girl  has  had  sense  enough  not  to  marry 
for  a  home,"  said   Miss  Tryphena  energetically,   "  I've 
watched  too  many   women,   toilin'   an*  slavin,'   day  an* 
night  for  men  that  wouldn't  let  'em  have  even  the  egg- 
money.    There's  my  own  sister  Almiry,   an'  Jacob   sets 
consid'able  by   her  too ;   always   dretful   upsot   if  she's 
sick,  and  scared  for  fear  she'll  die,  but  he'll  take  every 
pound  of  butter  an'  every  solitary  egg,  an'  if  she  happens 
to  touch  the  money,  s'posin'  he's  laid  it  down,  he  sings 
out,  '  Look-a-here,  Almiry   Skinner,  that's  money ! '  And 
Almiry  drops  it  like  hot  shot."         HELEN  CAMPBELL. 

"Of  one  thing  I  am  pretty  sure,"  he  resumed  "that 
the  same  recipe  Goethe  gave  for  the  enjoyment  of  life, 
applies  equally  to  all  work :  '  Do  the  thing  that  lies 
next  to  you.'  That  is  all  our  business.  Hurried  results 
are  worse  than  none.  We  must  force  nothing,  but  be 
partakers  of  the  divine  patience.  —  How  long  it  took  to 
make  the  cradle !  and  we  fret  that  the  baby  Humanity  is 
not  reading  Euclid.  If  there  is  one  thing  evident  in  the 
world's  history,  it  is  that  God  hasteneth  not.  All  haste 
implies  weakness.  GEORGE  MACDONALD. 

30.  Let  us  remember  that  womanliness  is  in  all  the 
motherliness  we  see  in  our  mothers  ;  that  it  is  in  all  the 
sacrifices  and  noble  deeds  of  silent  women,  as  well  as  in 
those  of  celebrated  women  ;  that  it  is  in  the  acts  of  all 
those  who  make  the  ordinary  home  "  like  the  shadow  of  a 
rock  in  a  weary  land."    If  we  are  impressed  with  the 
remembrance  that  womanliness  is  in  such  and  such  char- 
acters, we  shall  try  harder  to  imitate  them;  we  shall  be 
more  thankful  we  are  women,  and  more  grateful  that  it 
it  belongs  to  us  especially  to  impart  what  man  lacks,  and 
what  he  must  depend  on  us  to  supply.  A.  H.  R. 


OCTOBER. 

1.  "  She's  a  good  girl,  Doctor  Zay  is,  if  she  is  cute. 
There  isn't  a  horse  in  town,  without  it's  mine,  can  make 
the  miles  that  pony  can.    Look  there  !     The  creetur  wants 
her  dinner.     She  how  she  holds  her?     No  blinders  nor 
check  rein  on  her  horses.     She  drives  'em  by  lovin'  'em. 
There's    woman  clear  through    that  girVs   brains.     You 
should  see  her  in  January.     There  ain't  three  men  in  Sher- 
man I'd  trust  to  drive  that  mare  in  January  without  a  good 
life  insurance  before  they  set  out.     Now,  Mr.  Yorke,  may 
be   you   don't  feel  as  I  do,  but  to  my  mind  there's   no 
prettier  sight  under  heaven  than  a  brave  girl  and  a  fine 
horse  that  understand  each  other." 

ELIZABETH  STUART  PHELPS. 

Life  is  not  so  short  but  that  there  is  always  time  enough 
for  courtesy.  Self-command  is  the  main  elegance.  "  Keep 
cool  and  you  can  command  everybody,"  said  St.  Just. 

EMERSON. 

2.  Trust  in  that  good  Father  in  heaven,  whose  love 
sent  you  into  the  world,  and  gave  you  the  priceless  bless- 
ing of  life ;  whose  love  sent  his  Son  to  show  you  the  pattern 
of  life,  and  to  redeem  you  freely  from  all  your  sins  ;  whose 
love  sends  his  Spirit  to  give  you  the  power  of  leading  the 
everlasting  life,  and  will  raise  you  up  again  to  that  same 
everlasting  life   after  death.     Trust  him,  for   he  is   your 
Father.     Whatever  else  he  is,  he  is  that.     He  has  bid  you 
call  him  that,  and  he  will  hear  you.     If  you  forget  that  he 
is  your  Father,  you  forget  him,  and  worship  a  false  God  of 
your  own  invention.  CHARLES  KINGSLEV, 

'5° 


OCTOBER.  151 

3.  Since  rooms  can  be  made  cosey  and  cheerful  with 
very  little  money,  I  think  it  is  right  to  say  that  it  is  every 
woman's   duty  to  make  her   rooms   cosey  and   cheerful. 
There  is  not  one  of  my  readers,  I  am  sure,  who  does  not 
have,  in  the  course  of  the  year,  pocket-money  enough  to  do 

a  great  deal  toward  making  her  room  beautiful 

How  much  better  to  have  a  fine  plaster  cast  of  Apollo  or 
Clyde  than  a  gilt  locket,  for  instance  !     How  much  better 
to  have  a  heliotype  picture  of  one  of  Raphael's  or  Correg- 
gio's  Madonnas  than  seventy-five  cents  worth  of  candy  ! 
.     .    .     No  !    it  is  not  a  question  of  money  ;   it  is  a  ques- 
tion of  taste ;   it  is  a  question  of  choosing  between  good 
and  beautiful  things,  and  bad  and  ugly  things. 

HELEN  HUNT. 

4.  If  you  are  studying  the  natural  sciences,  so  follow 
them  that  you  may  see  more  clearly  the  rocks,  the  sea,  the 
sky,  the  verdure  of    the  earth,  the  mountains,  and  the 
valleys,  the  rivers  and  the  lakes, —  all  the  creations  upon 
the  earth,  as  far  as  you  have  studied  them, —  so  that  a  new 
heaven  and  a  new  earth  shall  be  spread  before  you,  and 
you  shall  learn  to  appreciate  more  fully  the  beneficence  of 
God. 

Are  mathematics  your  choice  ?  Then  learn  from  them 
the  value  of  stability,  fixedness  ;  the  worth  of  accuracy  in 
all  studies  and  in  all  callings  ;  the  power  of  durability,  es- 
pecially as  it  refers  to  the  durableness  of  right  against 
wrong  ;  the  perfections  of  forms  and  symbols ;  the  truths 
of  reasoning  ;  the  necessity  of  discipline.  A.  H.  R. 

Stay  at  home  in  your  mind, 

Don't  recite  other  peoples'  opinions.        EMERSON. 


152  OCTOBER. 

5.        I  saw  her  upon  nearer  view, 
A  spirit,  yet  a  woman  too  ! 
Her  household  motions  light  and  free, 
And  steps  of  virgin-liberty ; 
A  countenance  in  which  did  meet 
Sweet  records,  promises  as  sweet ; 
A  creature  not  too  bright  or  good 
For  human  nature's  daily  food, 
For  transient  sorrows,  simple  wiles, 
Praise,  blame,  love,  kisses,  tears,  and  smiles. 

And  now  I  see  with  eye  serene 

The  very  pulse  of  the  machine ; 

A  being  breathing  thoughtful  breath, 

A  traveller  betwixt  life  and  death ; 

The  reason  firm,  the  temperate  will, 

Endurance,  foresight,  strength  and  skill. 

A  perfect  woman,  nobly  planned 

To  warn,  to  comfort,  and  command  ; 

And  yet  a  spirit  still,  and  bright 

With  something  of  an  angel  light. 

WORDSWORTH. 

6.  And  to  get  peace,  if  you  do  want  it,  make  for  your- 
selves nests  of  pleasant  thoughts.  Those  are  nests  on  the 
sea,  indeed,  but  safe  beyond  all  others.  Do  you  know 
what  fairy  palaces  you  may  build  of  beautiful  thought 
proof  against  all  adversity  ?  Bright  fancies,  satisfied 
memories,  noble  histories,  faithful  sayings,  treasure-houses 
of  precious  and  restful  thoughts,  which  care  cannot  dis- 
turb, nor  pain  make  gloomy,  nor  poverty  take  away  from 
us  j  houses  built  without  hands  for  our  souls  to  live  in. 

RUSKIN. 


OCTOBER.  153 

7.  As  a  girl  is  bound  to  do  what  she  honestly  feels  she 
can  do  best,  she  should  never  question  how  her  work  may 
seem  to  another,  provided  it  does  not  absolutely   injure 
another.     In  many  cases,  much  more  good  might  be  done 
by  girls  and  women,  if,  instead  of  talking  so  much  about 
the  privileges  they  lack,  they  should  confidently  take  the 
places  they  ought  to  fill. 

I  should  not  ask  is  this  man's  work  or  woman's  work  : 
but,  rather,  is  it  my  work  ?  But,  in  whatever  I  attempted 
I  should  repeatedly  say  to  myself,  Am  I  keeping  my 
womanhood  strong  and  real,  as  God  intended  it  ?  am  I 
working  womanly  ?  Sister  Dora  never  questioned  whether 
she  ought  to  bind  up  the  wounds  of  her  crushed  workmen : 
she  laid  them  on  the  beds  of  her  hospital,  and  calmly 
healed  them.  Caroline  Herschel  did  not  stop  to  ask 
whether  her  telescope  were  privileged  to  find  new  stars, 
but  swept  it  across  the  heavens,  and  was  the  first  dis- 
coverer of  at  least  five  comets.  A.  H.  R. 

8.  The  one  serviceable,  safe,  certain,  remunerative,  at- 
tainable quality  in  every  study  and  every  pursuit  is  the 
quality  of  attention.     My  own  invention,  or  imagination, 
such  as  it  is,  I  can  most  truthfully  assure  you,  would  never 
have  served  me  as  it  has  but  for  the  habit  of  common- 
place, humble,  patient,  daily,  toiling,  drudging  attention. 

DICKENS. 

To  have  one  favorite  study  and  live  in  it  with  happy 
familiarity,  and  cultivate  every  portion  of  it  diligently  and 
lovingly,  as  a  small  yeoman  proprietor  cultivates  his  own 
land,  this,  as  to  study  at  least,  is  the  most  enviable  intel- 
lectual life.  HAMERTON. 


154  OCTOBER. 

9.  Have  we  not  sometimes  seen  persons  on  whom  this 
ineffable  Dove  of  Peace  seemed  always  to  brood, —  some 
persons  whom  nothing  could  disturb,  no  accident,  no  dis- 
appointment, no  disaster  ;  who  never  seemed  vexed,  never 
discomposed,  never  sore,  never  out  of  temper  ;   who  were 
impregnable  to   all  assaults  of  evil ;    who  were  like  the 
rock  in  the  sea,  over  which  the  great  billows  break  and 
roar,  but  which  stands  unmoved,  and  emerges  at  last  calm 
and  firm  as  ever  ? 

What  produces  the  divine  serenity,  subject  to  no  moods, 
clouded  by  no  depression,  this  perpetual  Sunday  of  the 
heart  ?  It  was  not  merely  good-nature,  not  the  accident 
of  a  happy  organization.  It  was  deeper  than  that.  It 
was  the  perfect  poise  resulting  from  a  Christian  experience. 
It  was  the  habit  of  looking  to  God  in  love  and  to  man  in 
l°ve-  JAMES  FREEMAN  CLARKE. 

10.  The   first  essential   for    a    cheerful   room    is  — 
Sunshine.      Without   this,  money,   labor,   taste,    are   all 
thrown  away.     A  dark  room  cannot  be  cheerful ;   and  it 
is  unwholesome  as  it  is  gloomy.     Flowers  will  not  blos- 
som in  it;  neither  will  people. 

"  Glorify  the  room  !  Glorify  the  room  !  "  Sidney  Smith 
used  to  say  of  a  morning,  when  he  ordered  every  blind 
thrown  open,  every  shade  drawn  up  to  the  top  of  the  win- 
dow. Whoever  is  fortunate  enough  to  have  a  southeast 
or  southwest  corner  room,  may,  if  she  chooses,  live  in  such 
floods  of  sunny  light  that  sickness  will  have  hard  work  to 
get  hold  of  her ;  and  as  for  the  blues,  they  will  not  dare  to 
so  much  as  knock  at  her  door. 

HELEN  HUNT  JACKSON. 


OCTOBER.  155 

11.  Money  is  a  needful  and  precious  thing,  and  when 
well  used  a  noble  thing  ;  but  I  never  want  you  to  think  it  is 
the  first  or  only  prize  to  strive  for. 

LOUISA  M.  ALCOTT. 

Mr.  Micawber  says,  and  he  is  right,  that  if  one's  income 
is  a  shilling  and  his  expenditure  twelve  pence  half-penny, 
the  result  is  misery ;  that  if  with  the  same  income,  one's 
expenditure  is  eleven  pence  half-penny,  the  result  is  abso- 
lute happiness. 

This  is  quite  true,  and  because  it  is  true,  faithful  and 
intelligent  people  determine  on  the  regulation  of  their  ex- 
penses, under  a  very  distinct  and  reliable  system,  among 
the  first  foundations  which  they  lay  for  successful  life. 
EDWARD  EVERETT  HALE. 

12.  If  old  tales  were  true,  and  the  gift-conferring  fai- 
ries really  come  to  stand  around  a  baby's  bed,  each  with  a 
present  in  her  hand,  I  think  out  of  all  that  they  could  bestow 
I  should  choose  for  any  child  in  whom  I  was  interested, 
these  two   things,  —  a  quick  sense  of  humor  and  a  love 
for  books.     There  is  nothing  so  lasting  or  so  satisfying. 
Riches  may  take  wings,  beauty  fade,  grace  vanish  into  fat, 
a  sweet  voice  become  harsh,  rheumatism  may  cripple  the 
fingers  which  played  or  painted  so  deftly,  —  with  each  and 
all  of  these  delighful  things  time  may  play   sad    tricks  • 
but  to  life's  end  the  power  to  see  the  droll  side  of  events 
is  an  unfailing  cheer,  and  so  long  as  eyes  and  ears  last, 
books  furnish  a  world  of  interest  and  escape,  whose  doors 
stand  always  open.  SUSAN  COOLIDGE. 

I  believe  that  more  young  women  sink  into  invalidism, 
or  die  prematurely,  from  the  want  of  adequate  thorough 
mental  training  than  from  any  one  other  physical  or 
mental  cause.  EDNA  D.  CHENEY. 


156  OCTOBER. 

13.  Its  leaves  have  been  asking  it  from  time  to  time,  in 
a  whisper,  "  When  shall  we  redden  ?  "     And  now  in  this 
month  of  October  this  month   of  travelling,  when  men 
are  hastening  to  the  sea-side,  or  the  mountains,  or  the 
lakes,  this  modest  Maple,  still  without  budging  an  inch, 
travels  in  its  reputation,  —  runs  up  its  scarlet  flag  on  that 
hillside,  which  shows  that  it  has  finished  its  summer's 
work  before  all  other  trees,  and  withdraws  from  the  con- 
test.    .     .     .     How  beautiful  when  a  whole  tree  is  like 
one  great  scarlet  fruit  full  of  ripe  juices,  every  leaf,  from 
lowest  limb  to  topmost  spire,  all  aglow,  especially  if  you 
look  toward  the  sun !     What  more  remarkable  object  can 
there  be  in  the  landscape  ?    ...     If  such  a  phenome- 
non occurred  but  once,  it  would  be  handed  down  to  pos- 
terity, and  get  into  mythology  at  last.  THOREAU. 

14.  You  cannot  think  that  the  buckling  on  the  knight's 
armor  by  his  lady's  hand  was  a  mere  caprice  of  romantic 
fashion.     It  is  the  type  of  an  eternal  truth  —  that  the 
soul's  armor  is  never  well  set  to  the  heart  unless  a  wo- 
mar's  hand  has  braced  it :  and  it  is  only  when  she  braces 
it  loosely  that  the  honor  of  womanhood  fails. 

RUSKIN. 

Ah,  wasteful  woman !  she  who  may 
On  her  sweet  self  set  her  own  price, 
Knowing  he  cannot  choose  but  pay  — 
How  has  she  cheapened  Paradise  ! 
How  given  for  naught  her  priceless  gift, 
How  spoiled  the  bread  and  spilled  the  wine, 
Which,  spent  with  due,  respective  thrift, 
Had  made  brutes  men,  and  men  divine ! 

COVENTRY  PATMORE. 


OCTOBER.  157 

1 5.  But  I  am  to  give  you  reasons  why  you  are  to  culti- 
vate your  speciality.     And  I  claim,  first,  that  you  should 
do  this  because  you  have  a  specialty  to  cultivate.    The 
second  reason,  is,  because  you  will  then  work  more  easily 
and  naturally,   with  the  least  friction,  with  the  greatest 
pleasure   to  yourself  and   the  most   advantage   to   those 
around  you.     "  Paddle   your   own  canoe,"  but  paddle  it 
right  out  into  the  swift,  sure  current  of  your  strongest, 
noblest  inclination.     Thirdly,  by  this  means  you  will  get 
into  your  cranium,  in  place  of  aimless  reverie,  a  resolute 
aim.  FRANCES  E.  WILLARD. 

16.  "  Not  as  I  will :  "  the  sound  grows  sweet 
Each  time  my  lips  the  words  repeat, 

"  Not  as  I  will : "  the  darkness  feels 
More  safe  than  light  when  this  thought  steals 
Like  whispered  voice  to  calm  and  bless 
All  unrest  and  all  loneliness. 

"  Not  as  I  will,"  because  the  One 
Who  loved  us  first  and  best  has  gone 
Before  us  on  the  road,  and  still 
For  us  must  all  his  love  fulfil, 

"Not  as  we  will." 

HELEN  HUNT  JACKSON. 

Whatever  church  helps  you  or  me  best  to  worship  Our 
Father  in  spirit  and  truth,  that  is  the  best  church  for  us  or 
for  anyone.  It  makes  no  difference  to  God  by  what  name 
or  with  what  form  we  seek  Him  if  only  the  heart  truly 
seeks.  Sometimes  we  may  draw  nearer  Him  through  ex- 
quisite music,  and  sometimes  through  the  fervent,  spoken 
prayer,  perhaps  sometimes  through  the  silence,  as  in  the 
Friends'  Meeting.  CHRISTINA  GOODWIN. 


158  OCTOBER. 

17.  Second  on  my  list  of  essentials  for  a  cheerful  room, 
I  put  Color. 

Don't  be  afraid  of  red.  It  is  the  most  kindling  and  in- 
spiring of  colors.  No  room  can  be  perfect  without  a  good 
deal  of  it.  In  an  autumn  leaf,  in  a  curtain,  in  a  chair- 
cover,  in  a  pin-cushion,  in  a  vase,  in  the  binding  of  a  book, 
everywhere  you  put  it,  it  makes  a  brilliant  point  and  gives 
pleasure.  The  blind  say  that  they  always  think  red  must 
be  like  the  sound  of  a  trumpet;  and  I  think  there  is  a 
deep  truth  in  their  instinct.  It  is  the  gladdest  and  most 
triumphant  color  everywhere.  Next  to  red  comes  yellow ; 
this  must  be  used  very  sparingly.  No  bouquet  of  flowers 
is  complete  without  a  little  touch  of  yellow;  and  no  room 
is  as  gay  without  it.  .  .  .  A  bouquet  or  a  room  which 
has  one  grain  too  much  of  yellow  in  it  is  hopelessly  ruined. 
HELEN  HUNT  JACKSON. 

18.  The  young  people  of  our  time  are  said  to  be  want- 
ing in  reverence.    They  are  often  generous  and   sympa- 
thetic ;  they  are  true  and  honorable.     This  class  of  virtues 
they  believe  in.     But  they  do  not  believe  in  those  born  of 
reverence. 

"  I  was  born  in  an  unlucky  time,"  said  a  lady.  "  When 
I  was  young,  I  was  obliged  to  respect  and  obey  my  parents, 
and  now  I  am  obliged  to  respect  and  obey  my  children." 
An  irreverent  age  is  wanting  in  the  highest  sentiment  of 
man.  To  "  look  up  "  is  the  noblest  of  all  powers.  The 
small  egotism  which  loves  to  look  down  on  others  wilts 
the  soul.  JAMES  FREEMAN  CLARKE. 

The  greatest  of  faults,  I  should  say,  is  to  be  conscious 
of  none.  CARLYLE. 


OCTOBER.  159 

19.  We  may  be  so  situated  that  we  cannot  do  any  great 
work  in  the  world.     By  temperament,  by  education,  or  by 
reason  of  ill-health  we  may  be  restricted  from  carrying  out 
our  ambitious  schemes,  but  there  are  none  so  weak,  so 
ignorant,  or  so  poor  that  they  cannot  do  some  good  in  the 
world.    The  ladder  that  reaches  to  heaven  is  not  composed 
of  wooden  rungs,  or  of  cold,  senseless  materials,  but  God 
has  made  every  human  being  so  dependent  on  his  fellow 
creatures  that  each  one  is  lifted  up  by  some  one  above 
him,  some  busy  heart  that  feels  another's  need  and  reaches 
out ;    and  where  there  is  no  looking  up  nor  reaching  out 
there  is  no  growth  nor  spiritual  attainment. 

JOSEPHINE  POLLARD. 

20.  Have  you  ever  rightly  considered  what  the  mere 
ability  to  read  means  ?     That  it  is  the  key  that  admits  us 
to  the  whole  world  of  thought  and  fancy  and  imagination,  to 
the  company  of  saint  and  sage,  of  the  wisest  and  the  wittiest 
at  their  wisest  and  wittiest  moments  ?     That  it  enables  us 
to  see  with  the  keenest  eyes,  hear  with  the  finest  ears,  and 
listen  to  the  sweetest  voices  of  all  time  ?     More  than  that, 
it  annihilates  time  and  space  for  us  ;  it  revives  for  us  with- 
out a  miracle  the  Age  of  Wonder,  endowing  us  with  the 
shoes  of  swiftness  and  the  cap  of  darkness,  so  that  we 
walk  invisible  like  fern  seed,  and  witness  unharmed  the 
plague  at  Athens  or  Florence  or  London,  accompanying 
Caesar  on  his  marches,  or  look  in  on  Cataline  in  council 
with  his  fellow-conspirators,  or  Guy  Fawkes  in  the  cellar 
of  St.  Stephen's.  LOWELL. 

To  read  without  reflecting  is  like  eating  without  digest- 
in£*  BURKE. 


l6o  OCTOBER. 

21.  To-day,  October  21,  I  found  the  air  in  the  bushy 
fields  and  lanes  under  the  woods  loaded  with  the  perfume 
of  the  witch-hazel  —  a  sweetish,  sickening  odor.     With  the 
blooming  of  this  bush,  Nature  says,  "  positively  the  last." 
All  trees  and  shrubs,  form  their  flowerbuds  in  the  fall,  and 
keep  the  secret  till  spring.     How  comes  the  witch-hazel  to 
be  the  one  exception  and  to  celebrate  its  floral  nuptials  on 
the  funeral  day  of  its  foliage  ?    No  doubt  it  will  be  found 
that  the  spirit  of  some  love-lorn  squaw  has  passed  into 
this  bush,  and  that  this  is  why  it  blooms  in  the  Indian 
summer  rather  than  in  the  white  man's  spring. 

But  it  makes  the  floral  series  of  the  woods  complete. 

Between  it  and  the  shad-blow  of  earliest  spring  lies  the 

mountain  of  bloom  ;  the  latter  at  the  base  on  one  side,  this 

at  the  base  on  the  other,  with  the  chestnut  blossoms  at  the 

.  top  in  mid-summer.  JOHN  BURROUGHS. 

22.  The  other  thing  that  represses  the  utterances  of  love 
is  the  characteristic  shyness  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  blood.    .    . 
There  is  a  powerlessness  of  utterance  in  our  blood  that 
we  should  fight  against,   and  struggle  outward  towards 
expression.     We  can  educate  ourselves  to  it,  if  we  know 
and  feel  the  necessity ;  we  can  make  it  a  Christian  duty, 
not  only  to  love,  but  to  be  loving,  —  not  only  to  be  true 
friends,  but  to  show  ourselves  friendly.     We  can  make 
ourselves  say  the  kind  things  that  rise  in  our  hearts  and 
tremble  back  on  our  lips,  —  do  the  gentle  and  helpful 
deeds  which  we  long  to  do  and  shrink  back  from  ;  and, 
little  by  little,  it  will  grow  easier,  —  the  love  spoken  will 
bring  the  answer  of  love,  —  the  kind  deed  will  bring  back 
a  kind  deed  in  return.        HARRIET  BEECHER  STOWE. 


OCTOBER.  l6l 

23.  We  are  ever  looking  to  something  better  than  we 
have  or  are,  and  whether  we  attain  it  or  lose  it,  there  is  no 
rest  for  our  feet. 

He  who  finds  life  and  self  sufficient  is  either  a  monster 
or  a  caricature.  Do  you  not  see  that  I  do  not  argue  with 
your  tears  ? 

Sorrow  is  the  handmaid  of  God,  not  of  Satan.  She 
would  lead  us,  as  she  did  the  Psalmist  to  say,  "  Who  will 
show  us  any  good  ?  "  that,  after  having  said  this,  we  may 
also  say  with  him,  "  Lord  lift  thou  the  light  of  thy  coun- 
tenance upon  us  1 " 

"  Honestly,"  said  he,  lifting  his  hands  as  if  he  appealed 
to  his  own  conscience,  "  priest  of  God  though  I  am,  in 
understanding  I  am  as  a  child.  I  cannot  explain, —  I 
testify.  I  witness  to  you  this  mystery,  that  out  of  the 
very  hurt  which  brings  me  low,  the  spiritual  life  is  devel- 
oped. A.  S.  HARDY. 

24.  The  best  and  safest  color  for  walls  is  a  delicate 
cream  color.     When  I  say  best  and  safest,  I  mean  the 
best  background  for  bright  colors  and  poor  pictures,  and 
the  color  which  is  least  in  danger  of  disagreeing  with  any- 
thing you  may  want  to  put  upon  it.     So  also  with  floors  ; 
the  safest  and  best  tint  is  a  neutral  gray.     If  you  cannot 
have  a  bare  wooden  floor,   either   of  black  walnut,  or 
stained  to  imitate  it,  then  have  a  plain  gray  felt  carpet. 
Above  all  things,  avoid  bright  colors  in  a  carpet.    In  rugs, 
to  lay  down  on  a  plain  gray,  or  a  dark-brown  floor,  the 
brighter  the  colors  the  better.     The  rugs  are  only  so  many 
distinct  pictures  thrown  up  into  relief  here  and  there  by 
the  under-tint  of  gray  or  brown. 

HELEN  HUNT  JACKSON. 


l62  OCTOBER. 

25.  Make  up  your  minds,  girls,  early  in  life  that  your  lot 
will  probably  be  like  that  of  the  average  girl,  —  that  trouble 
must  come,  and  even  a  skeleton  must  hang  and  gibber 
behind  your  door ;  but  that,  be  the  skeleton  what  it  may, 
you  will  nail  the  door  back  on  the  unsightly  thing,  clothe 
it  in  some  decent  garments,  and  make  it  as  respectable  as 
possible  in  its  niche,  since  it  must  stay  with  you.    Events, 
decrees,  circumstances,  will  not  change  for  just  you  and 
me;  but  we  can  change  ourselves,  and  so  defeat  them. 
Do  not  heed  untoward  circumstances.     "  Seize   hold   of 
God's  hand,  and  look  full  in  the  face  of  His  creation,  and 
there  is  nothing  He  will  not  enable  you  to  achieve." 

A.  H.  R. 

26.  Let  nothing  disturb  thee, 
Nothing  affright  thee ; 
All  things  are  passing ; 
God  never  changeth; 
Patient  endurance 
Attainteth  to  all  things ; 
Who  God  possesseth 

In  nothing  is  wanting ; 
Alone  God  sufficeth. 

LONGFELLOW. 

Art  tired  ? 

There  is  a  rest  remaining.     Hast  thou  sinned 
There  is  a  sacrifice.     Lift  up  thy  head. 
The  lovely  world,  and  the  over-world  alike, 
Ring  with  a  song  eterne,  a  happy  rede, 
"Thy  Father  loves  thee." 

JEAN  INGELOW. 


OCTOBER.  163 

27.  There  are  few  objects  in  this  world  more  repulsive 
to  me  than  a  selfish  woman  —  a  woman  who  selfishly  con- 
sults her  own  enjoyments,  her  own  ease,  her  own  pleas- 
ure.    If  you  have  the  slightest  desire  to  be  loved ;  if  you 
would  have  your  presence  a  welcome  one  in  palace  and 
cottage  alike ;  if  you  would  be  admired,  respected,  revered ; 
if  you  would  have  all  sweet  human  sympathies  clustering 
around  you  while  you  live,  you  must  be  a  working  woman 
—  living   and  working  for   others,  denying   yourself  for 
others,  and  building  up  for  yourself  a  character,  strong, 
symmetrical,  beautiful.  TIMOTHY  TITCOMB. 

28.  Nothing  could  be  lovelier  than  the  last  rose-buds, 
or  than  the  delicate  edges  of  the  strawberry  leaves  em- 
broidered with  hoar-frosts,  while  above  them  Arachne's 
delicate  webs  hung  swaying  in  the  green  branches  of  the 
pines, — little  ball-rooms  for   the  fairies,  carpeted  with 
powdered  pearls,  and  kept  in  place  by  a  thousand  dewy 
strands,  hanging  from  above  like  the  chains  of  a  lamp, 
and  supporting  them  from  below  like  the  anchors  of  a 
vessel.     These   little   airy  edifices   had  all  the  fantastic 
lightness  of  the  elf-world,  and  all  the  vaporous  freshness 
of  the  dawn.  FROM  THE  JOURNAL  OF  AMIEL. 

In  this  art  of  conversation,  woman,  if  not  the  queen  and 
victor,  is  the  lawgiver.  .  .  .  Madame  de  Tesse  said, 
4<  If  I  were  Queen,  I  should  command  Madame  de  Stael 
to  talk  to  me  every  day."  Conversation  fills  all  gaps, 
supplies  all  deficiences.  What  a  good  trait  'is  that  re- 
corded of  Madame  de  Maintenon,  that,  during  dinner,  the 
servant  slipped  to  her  side,  "  Please,  Madame,  one  anec- 
dote more,  for  there  is  no  roast  to-day !  "  EMERSON, 


164  OCTOBER. 

29.  How  much  we  might  make  of  our  family  life,  of  our 
friendships,  if  every  secret  thought  of  love  blossomed  into 
a  deed !     We  are  not  now  speaking  merely  of  personal 
caresses.     These  may  or  may  not  be  the  best  language 
of  affection.     Many  are  endowed  with  a  delicacy,  a  fas- 
tidiousness of  physical  organization,  which  shrinks  away 
from  too  much  of  these,  repelled  and  overpowered.     But 
there  are  words  and  looks  and  little  observances,  thought- 
fulnesses,  watchful  little  attentions,  which  speak  of  love, 
which  make  it  manifest,  and  there  is  scarce  a  family  that 
might  not  be  richer  in  heart-wealth  for  more  of  them. 

HARRIET  BEECHER  STOWE. 

30.  Believe  me,  your  Christianity  must  be  everywhere 
or  nowhere,  in  everything  or  in  nothing.     You  can  keep 
it  beside  you  when  you  sit  at  work,  or  when  you  put  down 
your  work  to  read  the  last  entertaining  book,  or  carry  it 
abroad  with  you  when  you  walk,  or  ride,  or  drive.     You 
ought  to  be  able  to  take  it  with  you  to  your  gayest  party, 
and  not  leave  it  behind  you  when  you  dance  and  think 
"  nae  ill."     It  may  ring  in  your  merriest  laugh,  as  well  as 
wail  in  your  bitterest  weeping.     ...     I  tell  you  once 
more,  there  is   Christianity  in   threading  your  mother's 
needle,  or  pulling  off  your  little  sister's  boot,  as  well  as  in 
taking  notes  of  sermons  and  distributing  tracts,  and  there 
is  more  security  of  the  genuineness  of  the  Christianity  in 
the  first  instances,  than  in  the  last.        SARAH  TYTLER. 

Not  what  you  say,  or  wish,  or  hope, 
While  through  the  darkness  here  you  grope ; 
But  what  you  do  and  what  you  are 
In  heart,  and  thought,  and  character. 

JAMES  H.  HOADLEY. 


OCTOBER.  165 

31.  Third  on  my  list  of  essentials  for  making  rooms 
cosey,  cheerful,  and  beautiful,  come  Books  and  Pictures. 
"  But  books  and  pictures  cost  a  great  deal  of  money." 
Yes,  books  and  pictures  do  cost  money,  but  books  accu- 
mulate rapidly  in  most  houses  where  books  are  read  at 
allj  and  if  people  really  want  books,  it  is  astonishing  how 
many  they  contrive  to  get  together  in  a  few  years.  As 
for  pictures,  how  much  or  how  little  they  cost  depends  on 
what  sort  of  pictures  you  buy.  For  a  few  shillings  you 
can  buy  a  good  heliotype  of  one  of  Raphael's  or  Correg- 
gio's  Madonnas,  as  I  have  said  before.  But  you  can  pur- 
chase pictures  much  cheaper  than  that.  A  Japanese  fan 
is  a  picture ;  some  of  them  are  exquisite  pictures,  and 
blazing  with  color  too.  HELEN  HUNT  JACKSON. 


NOVEMBER. 

1.  These  rocks  were  never  so  red  and  black  and  soft 
gray   before ;   the   sea  besieges  us   with  intensest   blue ; 
and  the  atmosphere  is  all  pure  gold.     There  is  a  bloom 
spread  over  the  horizon  which  summer  does  not  give,  that 
seems  like  the  meeting  of  the  sunrise  and  the  glow  of  the 
early  twilight ;  it  lies  like  a  benediction  over  sea  and  land. 
The  sea  sings,  and  the  heavens  answer,  and  other  men's 
thoughts  are  as  nothing. 

We  all  know  how  the  sense  of  but  a  short  abiding 
enhances  the  joy  of  these  last  days;  how  we  hold  the 
hours  with  a  miser's  grasp,  and  how  they  slip,  swift  and 
golden,  from  our  unwilling  fingers.  I  think  we  can  speak 
our  best  thoughts  out  under  that  broad  and  quiet  sky, 
and  the  answering  note  of  sympathy  is  never  so  surely 
struck  as  then.  ALICE  G.  HOWE. 

2.  Do  not  begin  by  suffering  or  welcoming  a  willing 
horse  or  a  scapegoat  among  you,  girls.     Do  not  allow  the 
generosity,  sweet  temper,  or  simplicity  of  one  of  you  to 
take  upon  her  the  burdens  of  all  the  rest,  so  that  when  a 
stranger  asks  who  gets  up  in  the  morning  and  gives  out 
the  tea  and  the  coffee  for  breakfast,  who  stays  at  home 
from  the  afternoon  excursion  and  writes  dutiful  letters, 
who  invariably  initiates  the  new  servants  in  their  duties, 
and  prepares  the  children's  lessons,  bears  all  the  respon- 
sibility, and  incurs  all  the  scolding  —  the  answer  is,  with- 
out fail,  Margaret,  or  Mary,  or  Lily  as  it  may  be. 

SARAH  TYTLER. 
166 


NOVEMBER.  167 

3.  Earth's  crammed  with  heaven, 

And  every  common  bush  afire  with  God ; 
But  only  he  who  sees,  takes  off  his  shoes. 

MRS.  BROWNING. 

There  has  probably  lived  within  the  past  century,  no 
woman  whose  genius,  character,  and  position  are  more 
full  of  interest  than  Mrs.  Browning's.  She  was  not  only 
far  above  all  the  female  poets  of  her  age,  but  ranked  with 
the  first  poets.  She  was  not  only  a  great  poet  but  a  great 
woman.  She  loved  and  revered  art,  but  she  loved  and 
revered  humanity  more.  Born  and  reared  in  England, 
her  best  affections  were  given  to  Italy,  and  her  warmest 
friends  and  most  enthusiastic  admirers  are  found  in 
America.  EDWARD  Y.  HINCKS. 

Why  is  the  memory  of  Mrs.  Browning  loved  beyond 
that  of  almost  any  poet  who  has  sung  ?  Because  "  the 
cry  of  the  human  "  is  so  strong  in  that  wondrous  voice  of 
ners-  FRANCES  E.  WILLARD. 

4.  I  had  once  the  honor  to  address  the  girls  of  the 
1 2th    Street  School  in    New  York.     "  Shall   I  call  you 
1  girls,'  or  *  young  ladies  '  ?  "  said  I.     "  Call  us  girls,"  was 
the  unanimous  answer.     I  heard  it  with  great  pleasure ; 
for  I  took  it  as  a  nearly  certain  sign  that  these  three  hun- 
dred young  people  were  growing  up  to  be  true  women, — 
which  is  to  say,  ladies  of  the  very  highest  tone. 

"  Why  did  I  think  so  ?  "  Because  at  the  age  of  fifteen, 
sixteen,  and  seventeen  they  took  pleasure  in  calling  things 
by  their  right  names.  EDWARD  EVERETT  HALE. 


1 68  NOVEMBER. 

5.  See  what  wily  creatures  these  blues  are!  —  full  of 
conceit !     They  grow  powerful  while  looking  at  us.     They 
are  like  those  little  wood  creatures   which  can  take  the 
hue  of  the  tree   on  which  they  rest,  so   that   for   a  long 
time   we   do  not  perceive  them.     They  sit  beside  us  by 
hundreds    when   we    fancy   we   are    alone ;    and   change 
their  colors  and  their  wheedling  tones  to  suit  our  inclina- 
tions, while  they  pour  into  our  ears  deceitful  whisperings 
that  the  world  is  all  wrong,  and  we  are  all    right,  —  the 
vile  flatterers  !    They  paint  all  our  surroundings  with  dark 
colors,   make   all  our   pictures    Mater  Dolorosas   or  St. 
Sebastians,  turn  all  our  music  into  requiems,  and  all  our 
books  into  Stygian  epics.  A.  H.  R. 

6.  I  have  never  known  any  other  woman  so  systemati- 
cally and  persistently  industrious  as  Alice  Gary.     Hers 
was  truly  the  genius  of  patience.    No  obstacle  ever  daunted 
it,  no  pain  ever  stilled  it,  no  weariness  ever  overcame  it, 
till  the  last  weariness  of  death.     I  doubt  if  she  ever  kept 
a  diary,  or  wrote  down  a  rule  for  her  life.     She  did  not 
need  to  do  so;  her  life  itself  was  the  rule.     There  was  a 
beautiful,  yet  touching  uniformity  in  her  days.     Her  pleas- 
ure was  her   labor.     Of  rest,    recreation,    amusement,  as 
other  women  sought  these,  she  knew  almost  nothing.    Her 
rest  and  recreation  were  the  intervals  from   pain,  in  which 
she  could  labor.     It  was  not  always  the  labor  of  writing. 
NJO,  sometimes  it  was  making  a  cap,  or  trimming  a  bonnet 
yet  it  was  work  of  some  sort,  never  play. 

MARY  CLEMMER. 

The  world  belongs  to  the  energetic  man. 

EMERSON. 


NOVEMBER.  169 

7.  With  a  very  earnest  prayer,   Polly  asked  for  the 
strength  of  an  upright  soul,  the  beauty  of  a  tender  heart, 
the  power  to  make   her  life  a  sweet  and  stirring  song, 
helpful  while  it  lasted,  remembered  when  it  died. 

LOUISA  M.  ALCOTT. 

When  Harriet  Beecher  was  the  leading  spirit  in  a  girl's 
society  for  mental  improvement,  she  did  not  know  that  the 
intellectual  gifts  there  developed  would  enable  her  to  strike 
the  keenest  blow  that  slavery  ever  received  in  this  coun- 
try. Keep  the  sword  bright,  keen,  and  well  tempered,  and 
opportunity  will  come  to  use  it  in  defense  of  truth  and 
right.  EDXA  D.  CHENEY. 

"  I've  got  no  rich  friends  to  help  me  up,  but,  sooner  or 
later,  I  mean  to  find  a  place  among  cultivated  people; 
and  while  I  am  waiting  and  working  I  can  be  fitting  my- 
self to  fill  that  place  like  a  gentlewoman  as  I  am." 

LOUISA  M.  ALCOTT. 

8.  Fourth  on  my  list  of  essentials  for  a  cosey,  cheerful 
room,  I  put  —  Order.     I  think  almost  as  many  rooms  are 
spoiled  by  being  kept  in   too  exact  order,  as   by  being 
too  disorderly.     There  is  an  apparent  disorder  which  is  not 
disorderly ;   and  there  is  an  apparent  order,  which  is  only 
a  witness  to  the  fact  that  things  are  never  used.     I  do  not 
know  how  better  to  state  the  golden  mean  on  this  point 
than  to  tell  the  story  of  an  old  temple  which  was  once  dis- 
covered, bearing  on  three  of  its  sides  this  inscription,  "  Be 
bold."     On  the  fourth  side,  the  inscription,  "  Be  not  too 
bold."     I  think  it  would  be  well  written  on  the  three  sides 
of  a  room,  "  Be  orderly  ;  "  on  the  fourth  side,  "  But  don't 
be  too  orderly."  HELEN  HUNT  JACKSON> 


170  NOVEMBER. 

9.  All  are  architects  of  Fate, 

Working  in  these  walls  of  Time ; 
Some  with  massive  deeds  and  great, 
Some  with  ornaments  of  rhyme. 

For  the  structure  that  we  raise, 

Time  is  with  materials  filled ; 
Our  to-days  and  yesterdays 

Are  the  blocks  with  which  we  build. 

In  the  elder  days  of  Art, 

Builders  wrought  with  greatest  care, 

Each  minute  and  unseen  part, 
For  the  Gods  see  everywhere. 

Let  us  do  our  work  as  well, 

Both  the  unseen  and  the  seen ; 
Make  the  house,  where  Gods  may  dwell, 

Beautiful,  entire,  and  clean. 

LONGFELLOW. 

10.  Shall  we  not  find  that  all  parts  of  our  lives  will 
prove   to  have  been  training  for  whatever  is  our  truest 
work  even  on  earth,  and  also  for  the  heavenly  service  to 
which  one,  more  and  more,  looks  forward  ?     But  the  bits 
of  wayside  work  are  very  sweet.     Perhaps  the  odd  bits, 
when  all  is  done,  will  really  come  to  more  than  the  seem- 
ingly greater  pieces !     The  chance  conversations  with  rich 
or  poor,  the  seed  sown  in  odd  five  minutes,  even  the  tables- 
d'h6te  for  me,  and  the  rides  and  friends'  tables  for  you. 
It  is  nice  to  know  that  the  King's  servants  are  always  really 
on  duty,  even  while  some  can  only  stand  and  wait. 

FRANCES  R.  HAVERGAL. 


NOVEMBER.  17 1 

11.  What  makes  us  blame  the  weather  so  much  for  our 
moods,  girls  ?    The  day  is  gray  everywhere,—  in  the  skies, 
on  the  trees,  on  the  ground, —  and  gray  in  us  therefore. 
Ah  !  but  these  colors  are  beautiful,  even  in  November  and 
December.    In  their  variety,  they  are  soft  and  shimmering 
on  the  tree  branches,  a  slightly  ruddy  gray  on  the  branchlets, 
and  a  serener  gray  on  the  tree  trunks.     Overhead,  even 
when  a  storm  is  gathering  in  the  sky,  there  are  the  colors 
of  the  moonstone  tinting  into  silver,  and  shading  into  pearl 
and  blue.     On  the  ground  are  delicate  wood-colors,—  um- 
bers, siennas,  greens  toned  down  to  gray.     The  atmos- 
phere, from  its  lack  of  sunlight,  only  sets  off  the  more 
visibly,  beautiful  forms  of  trees  and  branches.     No,  the 
day  is  not  moody :  we  are.     We  are  not  in  harmony  with 
her,  but  have  arrayed  ourselves  against  her.     A.  H.  R. 

12.  Titian  and  Raphael,  and  all  the  great  brotherhood 
of  painters,  may  kneel  reverently  as  priests  before  Nature's 
face,  and  paint  pictures  at  sight  of  which  all  men's  eyes 
shall  fill  with  grateful  tears  ;  and  yet  all  men  shall  go  away, 
and  find  that  the  green  shade  of  a  tree,  the  light  on  a 
young  girl's  face,  the  sleep  of  a  child,  the  flowering  of  a 
flower,  are    to  their  pictures  as   living  life  to  beautiful 
death.  HELEN  HUNT  JACKSON. 

In  old  days  there  were  angels  who  came  and  took  men 
by  the  hand  and  led  them  away  from  the  city  of  destruc- 
tion. We  see  no  white-winged  angels  now.  But  yet  men 
are  led  away  from  threatening  destruction ;  a  hand  is  put 
into  theirs,  which  leads  them  forth  gently  towards  a  calm 
and  bright  land,  so  that  they  look  no  more  backward,  and 
the  hand  may  be  a  little  child's.  GEORGE  ELIOT. 


172  NOVEMBER. 

13.  Many  a  young  girl  who  is  suddenly  thrown  upon 
her  own  resources  fails  to  do  what  she  can,  merely  because 
she  has  not  the  tact  to  do  the  first  thing  that  offers  that  is 
reputable.     She  cannot  teach,  perhaps,  nor  write  for  the 
press,  nor  paint,  nor  read  proof,  but  she  ought  to  know 
how  to  keep  house,  and,  if  she  knows  that  she  has  one 
opening.     There  are  schools  that  need  matrons  and  stew- 
ards, and  there  are  many  households  in  which  the  mistress 
wishes  relief  from  the  care  of  providing  and  managing 
servants.     Many  a  woman  might  do  far  worse  than  accept 
a  position  of  that  sort.     Are  there  not  many,  too,  who  have 
had    enough    experience   in   watching   dressmakers    and 
milliners  to  learn  to  do  their  work  without  much  loss  of 
time?  MOTHERS  IN  COUNCIL. 

14.  The  chief  duty  of  a  nurse  is  simply  to  keep  the  air 
which  the  patient  breathes  as  pure  as  the  external  air,  but 
without  chilling  him.     .     .     .     An  extraordinary  fallacy  is 
the   dread  of  night   air.     What   air   can  we   breathe   at 
night  but  night  air  ?     The  choice  is  between  pure  night 
air  from  without  and  foul  night  air  from  within.     Most 
people  prefer  the  latter.     An  unaccountable  choice  !     An 
open  window,  most  nights  in  the  year,  can  hurt  no  one. 
Better  shut  the  windows  all  day  than  all  night.     One  rea- 
son why  people,  especially  women,  are   less  robust  than 
formerly  is  because  they  spend  the  greater  part  of  their 
lives  breathing  poison.  FLORENCE  NIGHTINGALE. 

If  our  girls  are  to  walk  the  same  streets  with  their 
brothers,  is  there  any  reason  why  the  soles  of  their  shoes 
should  not  be  of  equal  thickness  ?  And  yet  no  man  would 
think  of  wearing  soles  as  thin  as  those  which  many  of  our 
girls  habitually  wear.  ANNA  C.  BRACKETT. 


NOVEMBER.  173 

15.  Obedience  to  the  behests  of  duty  gives  peace,  even 
when  love  is  lacking;  and  peace  is  a  diviner  thing  than 
happiness.  MARY  A.  LIVERMORE. 

If  you  have  a  piano,  one  note  of  which  in  the  treble 
is  mute,  not  one  tune  can  be  played  on  it,— no  music 
worth  having  can  be  drawn  from  it,  without  making  the  de- 
fect manifest;  and  yet  the  note  is  not  actively  offensive,  it 
merely  does  not  sound. 

Now,  call  the  piano  a  family,  and  call  the  Cumberer  a 
faulty  note,  and  you  at  once  see  the  harm  she  does ;  she 
makes  the  tune  imperfect  when  it  does  not  sound,  and 
when  it  does  sound,  jars. 

JEAN  INGELOW.—  The  Cumbercrs. 

The  habit  of  treating  one  another  without  the  little 
forms  in  use  among  other  friends,  and  the  horrid  trick  of 
speaking  rudely  of  each  other's  defects  or  mishaps,  is  the 
underlying  source  of  half  the  alienations  of  relatives.  If 
we  are  bound  to  show  special  benevolence  to  those  near- 
est to  us,  why  do  we  give  them  pain  at  every  turn,  rub 
them  the  wrong  way,  and  froisser  their  natural  amour 
propre  by  unflattering  remarks  or  unkind  references  ? 

FRANCES  POWER  COBBE. 

16.  The  only  thing  wiser  than  dreaming  is  doing,— 
working  in  such  a  way  as  to  bring  the  distant  near,  and 
getting  out  of  the  veriest  commonplace  the  joy  we  fancied 
lay  only  in  the  future,  in  other  lands,  or  only  in  dreams. 
Build  castles  and  dwellings  out  of  the  commonplace,  and 
you  shall  see  them  shine  with  splendor,  and  glow  with 
beauties  which  can  never  be  exhausted.  She  alone  is  rich 
who  has  estates  in  her  soul.  A.  H.  R. 


174  NOVEMBER. 

17.  Mary  Ashburton   was  in  her   twentieth  summer. 
Like  the  fair  maiden  Amoret,  who  was  sitting  in  the  lap  of 
womanhood.     They  did  her  wrong  who  said  she  was  not 
beautiful :  and  yet 

"  She  was  not  fair, 

Nor  beautiful ;  those  words  express  her  not. 
But,  O,  her  looks  had  something  excellent, 
That  wants  a  name." 

Her  face  had  a  wonderful  fascination  in  it.  It  was  such 
a  calm,  quiet  face,  with  the  light  of  the  rising  soul  shining 
so  peacefully  through  it.  At  times  it  wore  an  expression 
of  seriousness, —  of  sorrow  even;  and  then  seemed  to 
make  the  very  air  bright  with  what  the  Italian  poets  call  the 
lightning  of  the  angelic  smile.  LONGFELLOW. 

18.  As  our  girls  come  into  womanhood  we  wish  them 
to  take  right  views  of  life ;   and,  while  we  desire  that  they 
shall  enjoy  themselves  as  only  young  girls  can,  we  certainly 
would  not  have  them  look  for  nothing  beyond  the  enjoyment 
of  the  moment.     "  Having  a  thoroughly  good  time  "  must 
not  be  their  first  and  only  idea.     They  have  claims  upon 
their  time  and  affection  from  the  family  at  home ;   their 
feelings  are  easily  moved,  and  should  be  directed  to  sym- 
pathy in  the  real  troubles  and  sorrows  that  they  see,  or 
they  should  be  taught  to  look  for  them  among  those  whose 
lot  is  less  happy  than  their  own,  rather  than  allowed  to 
waste   themselves   in   sentimental   sorrows   over  modern 
novels  and  the  distresses  of  the  imaginary  heroines  whom 
we  hear  so  much  about.  MOTHERS  IN  COUNCIL. 


NOVEMBER.  175 

19.  We  shall  see,  first,  that  the  cheery  person  never 
minds   small    worries,    vexations,   perplexities.      Second, 
that  he  is  brimful  of  sympathy  in  other  people's  gladness ; 
he  is  heartily,  genuinely  glad  of  every  bit  of  good  luck  or 
joy  which  comes  to  other  people.     Thirdly,  he  has  a  keen 
sense  of  humor,  and  never  lets  any  droll  thing  escape  him  ; 
he  thinks  it  worth  while  to  laugh,  and  to  make  everybody 
about  him  laugh,  at  every  amusing  thing.     Patience,  sym- 
pathy, and  humor,  these  are  the  three  most  manifest  traits 
in  the  cheery  person.     But  there  is  something  else,     .     .     . 
this  is  lovingness.     This  is  the  real  point  of  difference  be- 
tween the  mirth  of  the  witty  and  sarcastic  person,  which 
does  us  no  good,  and  the  mirth  of  the  cheery  person  which 
"doeth  good  like  a  medicine." 

HELEN  HUNT  JACKSON. 

20.  Consider  it 
(This  cuter  world  we  tread  on)  as  a  harp, — 
A  gracious  instrument  on  whose  fair  strings 
We  learn  those  airs  we  shall  be  set  to  play 
When  mortal  hours  are  ended.     Let  the  wings, 
Man,  of  thy  spirit  move  on  it  as  wind, 

And  draw  forth  melody.     Why  shoulds't  thou  yet 
Lie  grovelling  ?    More  is  won  than  e'er  was  lost : 
Inherit.     Let  thy  day  be  to  thy  night 
A  teller  of  good  tidings.     Let  thy  praise 
Go  up  as  birds  go  up  that,  when  they  wake, 
Shake  off  the  dew  and  soar.  JEAN  INGELOW. 

Hope  never  hurt  anyone  —  never  yet  interfered  with 
duty;  nay,  it  always  strengthens  to  the  performance  of 
duty,  gives  courage  and  clears  the  judgment. 

GEORGE  MACDONALD. 


176  NOVEMBER. 

21.  Marguerite  de  Valois  wrote,  "  Gentleness,  cheerful- 
ness, and  urbanity  are   the  Three  Graces   of    manners." 
Valuing  all  that  constitutes   a  lady,  knowing  that  these 
graces  are  necessary  to  every  girl,  I  believe  the  ladylike  is 
but  a  part  of  true  womanliness, —  that  infinitely  precious, 
indescribable  something  in  woman  that  makes  her  royal  by 
birth,  queen  of  herself,  and  fit  to  occupy  the  throne  that 
is  placed  beside  the  king's  throne, —  not  higher,  not  lower, 
but  beside  it ;   not  his,  but  like  his ;   her  own,  from  which, 
with  equal  though  with  differing  eye,  she  looks  in  blessing 
on  the  world.  A.  H.  R. 

22.  She  had  the  essential  attributes  of  a  lady, —  high 
veracity,   delicate   honor   in   her    dealings,   deference   to 
others,  and  refined  personal  habits.        GEORGE  ELIOT. 

The  "  Earth  waits  for  her  queen,"  was  Margaret  Fuller's 
favorite  motto.  A.  H.  R. 

"  And  whether  consciously  or  not,  you  must  be,  in  many 
a  heart,  enthroned :  there  is  no  putting  by  that  crown  ; 
queens  you  must  always  be;  queens  to  your  lovers; 
queens  to  your  husbands  and  your  sons  ;  queens  of  higher 
mystery  to  the  world  beyond,  which  bows  itself  and  will 
forever  bow,  before  the  myrtle  crown,  and  the  stainless 
sceptre,  of  womanhood.  RUSKIN. 

For  one,  I  can  truly  say,  with  charming  Mrs.  Trench  in 
her  letters  written  in  1816,  "  I  do  believe  the  girls  of  the 
present  day  have  not  lost  the  power  of  blushing ;  and 
though  I  have  no  grown-up  daughters,  I  enjoy  the  friend- 
ship of  some  who  might  be  my  daughters,  in  whom  the 
greatest  delicacy  and  modesty  are  united  with  perfect  ease 
of  manner,  and  habitual  intercourse  with  the  world." 

T.    W.    HlGGINSON. 


NOVEMBER.  177 

23.  Nothing  can  bring  you  peace  but  yourself.   Nothing 
can  bring  you  peace  but  the  triumph  of  principles. 

EMERSON. 

The  only  use  of  time  is  in  bringing  the  heart  into 
partnership  with  high  principles,  and  thus  rising  into 
fellowship  with  God.  As  the  Emperor  Titus  said,  "  I 
have  lost  a  day,"  when  he  could  think  of  no  good  action 
he  had  done  during  the  sun's  circuit,  we  must  judge  our- 
selves in  the  blaze  of  the  fact  that  every  day  is  lost,  ac- 
cording to  the  heavenly  notation,  that  has  not  been  en. 
nobled  and  spiritualized  by  the  action  of  some  moral  and 
celestial  quality,  either  in  restraining  passion,  or  doing 
something,  or  giving  something,  or  cherishing  some  devout 
sentiment,— so  that  a  truth,  a  principle,  has  become  a 
more  ready  guest,  through  us,  in  this  world  of  conflict  and 
sin.  T.  STARR  KING. 

24.  If  I  were  to  choose  among  all  gifts  and  qualities 
that  which,  on  the  whole,  makes  life  pleasantest,  I  should 
select  the  love  of  children.     No  circumstance  can  render 
this  world  wholly  a  solitude  to  one  who  has  that  posses- 
sion.    It  is  a  freemasonry.     Wherever  one  goes,  there 
are  the  little  brethren  and  sisters  of  the  mystic  tie.     No 
diversity  of  race  or   tongue  makes  much  difference.     A 
smile  speaks  the  universal  language.     "  If  I  value  myself 
on  anything,"  said  the  lovely  Hawthorne,  "  it  is  on  having 
a  smile  that  children  love."    .    .     .    The  dearest  saint  in 
my  calendar  never  entered  a  railway  car  that  she  did  not 
look  round  for  a  baby,  which,  when  discovered,  must  al- 
ways be  won  at  once  into  her  arms. 

T.  W.  HIGGINSON. 


178  NOVEMBER. 

25.  Look  up  at  the  miracle  of  the  falling  snow, —  the 
air  a  dizzy  maze  of  whirling,  eddying  flakes,  noiselessly 
transforming  the  world,  the  exquisite  crystals  dropping  in 
ditch  and  gutter,  and  disguising  in  the  same  suit  of  spot- 
less livery  all  objects  upon  which  they  fall.     How  novel 
and  fine  the  first  drifts  !     The  old,  dilapidated  fence  is 
suddenly  set  off  with  the  most  fantastic  ruffles,  scalloped 
and  fluted  after  an  unheard-of  fashion ! 

The  world  lies  about  me  in  a  "  trance  of  snow."  The 
clouds  are  pearly  and  iridescent  —  the  ghosts  of  clouds. 
.  .  .  I  see  the  hills,  bulging  with  great  drifts,  lift  them- 
selves up  cold  and  white  against  the  sky.  .  .  . 

Looking  down  a  long  line  of  decrepit  stone-wall,  in  the 
trimming  of  which  the  wind  had  rim  riot,  I  saw,  as  for  the 
first  time,  what  a  severe  yet  master  artist  old  Winter  is. 
Ah,  a  severe  artist !  JOHN  BURROUGHS. 

26.  It  is  not  for  you,  nor  for  me,  to  slight,  to  scorn,  to 
condemn  the  fallen.     Of  this  we  are  sure, —  that  no  beauty, 
no  intelligence,  can  compare  with  womanliness  ;   and  that 
no  girl,  weak  and  wicked  as  she  may  be,  is  utterly  lost  to 
womanliness.     May  I  here  appeal  to  you,  dear  girls,  to 
hasten  the  return  of  a  woman  to  her  best  self  ?     May  I 
urge  you  not  to  slight  even  the  sinful  ?    As  you  are  girls 
with  most  precious  endowments,  remember  to  encourage 
the  growth  of  these  gifts  in  other  girls.     Then  will  woman- 
hood seem  even  more  blessed  than  now, —  when  girls  de- 
fend it  and  purify  it.     Perhaps  one  of  the  hardest  things  in 
this  world  to  realize  is  the  fact  that  we  are  all,  not  only 
children  of  one  Father,  but  that,  we  are  brothers  and 
sisters,  as  well.  A.  H.  R. 


NOVEMBER.  179 

27.  If  I  were  able,  I  would  change  the  public  sentiment 
so  radically,  that  no  girl  should  be  considered  well  edu- 
cated, no  matter  what  her  accomplishments,  until  she  had 
learned  a  trade,  a  business,  a  vocation,  or  a  profession. 
Self-support  would  then  be  possible  to  her,  and  she  would 
not  float  on  the  current  of  life,  a  part  of  its  useless  drift- 
wood. MARY  A.  LIVERMORE. 

"  Th.ee  is  restless,"  said  Rachel  Froke.  "  And  to  make 
us  so  is  oftentimes  the  first  thing  the  Lord  does  for  us.  It 
was  the  first  thing  He  did  for  the  world.  Then  He  said, 
*  Let  there  be  light ! '  In  the  meantime,  thee  is  right ;  just 
darn  thy  stockings." 

Doing  any  one  thing  well  —  even  setting  stitches  and 

plaiting  frills  —  puts  a  key  into  one's  hand  to  the  opening 

of  some  other  quite  different  secret  ;    and  we  can  never 

know  what  may  be  to  come  out  of  the  meanest  drudgery. 

MRS.  A.  D.  T.  WHITNEY. 

28.  A  library  of  novels  is  like  a  gallery  of  pictures. 
One  man  saunters  through  the  library  and  sees  what  the 
pictures  are  about ;  —  another  man  goes  through  the  gal- 
lery and  sees  what  the  artists  were  about, —  what  is  the 
range  of  the  powers  of  each,  the  degrees  of  their  technical 
skill,  and  the  directions  in  which  they  lie  open  to  the  In- 
finite.    The  first  man  sees  the  paint,  all  of  it ;   the  second 
man  sees  the  paintings.     ...     If  all  novel  readers  were 
compelled,  when  they  close  a  book,  to  write  out  the  main 
doctrine  or  proposition  which  is  the  axis  of  the  incidents 
and  plot,  it  would  be  better  for  their  moral  education  than 
if  they  could  listen  once  a  week  to  the  best  lecture  on 
ethics  that  is  delivered  by  the  foremost  professor  in  civiliz- 
ation. T.  STARR  KING. 


l8o  NOVEMBER. 

29.  Better  trust  all  and  be  deceived, 

And  weep  that  trust  and  that  deceiving, 
Than  doubt  one  heart  that,  if  believed, 
Had  blessed  one's  life  with  true  believing. 

O,  ?n  this  mocking  world  too  fast 

The  doubting  fiend  o'ertakes  our  youth ; 

Better  be  cheated  to  the  last 

Than  lose  the  blessed  hope  of  truth. 

FRANCES  ANNE  KEMBLE. 

30.  If  I  were  a  boy  again  [it  applies  to  girls  as  well], 
I  would  look  on  the  cheerful  side  of  everything,  for  every- 
thing, almost,  has  a  cheerful  side.     Life  is  very  much  like 
a  mirror  ;  if  you  smile  upon  it,  it  smiles  back  again  on  you ; 
but  if  you  frown  and  look  doubtful  upon  it,  you  will  be 
sure  to  get  a  similar  look  in  return.     I  once  heard  it  said 
of  a  grumbling,  unthankful  person,  "  He  would  have  made 
an  uncommonly  fine  sour  apple,  if  he  had  happened  to  be 
born  in  that  station  of  life ! "  Inner  sunshine  warms  not  only 
the  heart  of  the  owner,  but  all  who  come  in  contact  with  it. 
Indifference  begets  indifference.     "  Who  shuts  love  out,  in 
turn  shall  be  shut  out  from  love." 

JAMES  T.  FIELDS. 


DECEMBER. 

1.  I  see  no  objection,  however,  to  light  reading,  desul- 
tory reading,  the  reading  of  newspapers,  or  the  reading  of 
fiction,  if  you  take  enough  ballast  with  it,  so  that  these 
light  kites,  as  the  sailors  call  them,  may  not  carry  your 
ship  over  in  some  sudden  gale.     The  principle  of  sound 
habits  of  reading,  if  reduced  to  a  precise  rule,  comes  out 
thus  :  That  for  each  hour  of  light  reading,  of  what  we  read 
for  amusement,  we  ought  to  take  another  hour  of  reading 
for  instruction.     Nor  have  I  any  objection  to  stating  the 
same  rule  backward ;  for  that  is  a  poor  rule  which  will  not 
work  both  ways.     It  is,  I  think,  true,  that  for  every  hour 
we  give  to  grave  reading,  it  is  well  to  give  a  corresponding 
hour  to  what  is  light  and  amusing. 

EDWARD  EVERETT  HALE. 

2.  Perhaps  the  first  element  of  "  Sister  Dora's  "  charac- 
ter which  made  itself  felt  was  her  great  hopefulness.    This 
glowed  in  her,  as  was  said  of  a  great  historic  character, 
"  like  a  pillar  of  fire  ;  "  it  did  so  in  the  first  and  darkest 
hour,  and  it  did  so  every  hour  until  the  end.     This  light 
and  warmth  never  paled.     It  was  so  healthy,  too ;   not  as 
of  hope  against  hope,  but  the  hope  of  a  sound,  pure  nature 
doing  the  work  of  God.     .     .     .     Should  we  be  tempted 
some  day  to  despond  of  humanity,  we  will  think  of  her ; 
should  we  be  shaken  some  dark  hour  concerning  the  possi- 
bilities of  Christianity,  her  image  will  reassure  us  ;  should 
we  be  told,  amid  scenes  of  perplexity,  that  "  religion  is  a 
disease,"  then  we  can  point  to  her,  as  to  one  who  pos- 
sessed, at  all  times,  a  fullness  of  joyous  life  beyond  all  we 
had  ever  known.  ANON. 

iSi 


l82  DECEMBER. 

3.  With  Miss  St.  John,  music  was  the  highest  form  of 
human  expression,  as  must  often  be  the  case  with  those 
whose  feeling  is  much  in  advance  of  their  thought,  and  to 
whom,  therefore,  what  may  be  called  mental  sensation  is 
the  highest  known  condition.     .    .    .     One  who  can  only 
play  the  music  of  others,  however  exquisitely,   is  not  a 
musician,  any  more  than  one  who  can  read  verse  to  the 
satisfaction,  or  even  expound  it  to  the  enlightenment  of  the 
poet  himself,  is  therefore  a  poet.     When  Miss  St.  John 
would  worship  God,  it  was  in  music  that  she  found  the 
chariot  of  fire  in  which  to  ascend  heavenward. 

GEORGE  MACDONALD. 

4.  I  look  to  Thee  in  every  need, 

And  never  look  in  vain  ; 
I  feel  Thy  touch,  Eternal  Love, 

And  all  is  well  again : 
The  thought  of  Thee  is  mightier  far 
Than  sin  and  pain  and  sorrow  are. 

Discouraged  in  the  work  of  life 

Disheartened  by  its  load, 
Shamed  by  its  failures  or  its  fears, 

I  sink  beside  the  road  ;  — 
But  let  me  only  think  of  Thee, 
And  then  new  heart  springs  up  in  me. 

Embosomed  deep  in  Thy  dear  love, 

Held  in  Thy  law,  I  stand ; 
Thy  hand  in  all  things  I  behold, 

And  all  things  in  Thy  hand ;"] 
Thou  leadest  me  by  unsought  ways, 
And  turnest  my  mourning  into  praise. 

SAMUEL  LONGFELLOW. 


DECEMBER.  183 

5.  There  are  so  many  things  a  girl  can  do,  even  when 
society  claims  her,  —  more  than  ever,  I  should  say  I    Make 
work,  if  you  cannot  get  it,  girls.     Encourage  poor  girls  by 
joining  the  industrial  unions  instituted   in  their   behalf. 
Go  into  the  hospitals,  old  ladies'  homes,  charity  bureaus, 
flower  missions.     Join  a  Chautauqua  club,  or  one  of  the 
societies  for  the  encouragement  of  studies  at  home.     At- 
tend the  numerous  lectures,  exhibits,  etc.,  which  are  pro- 
vided free  of  expense  in  all  large  cities.  A.  H.  R. 

6.  If  the  October  days  were  a  cordial  like  the  sub-acids 
of  fruit,  these  are  a  tonic  like  the  wine  of  iron.     Drink 
deep  or  be  careful  how  you  taste  this  December  vintage. 
The  first  sip  may  chill,  but  a  full  draught  warms  and  in- 
vigorates.    No  loitering  by  the  brooks  or  in  the  woods 
now,  but  spirited,  rugged  walking  along  the  public  high- 
way.    The  sunbeams  are  welcome  now.     They  seem  like 
pure    electricity  —  like   friendly   and    recuperating   light- 
ning.    Are  we    led    to  think  electricity  abounds  only  in 
summer,  when  we  see  in  the  storm-clouds  as  it  were,  the 
veins  and  ore-beds  of  it?    I  imagine  it  is  equally  abundant 
in  winter,  and  more  equable  and  better  tempered.     Who 
ever  breasted  a  snow  storm  without  being  excited  and 
exhilarated  ?     It  is  like  being  pelted  with  sparks  from  a 
battery.    Behold  the  frost-work  on  the  pane — the  wild 
fantastic  limnings  and  etchings,  can  there  be  any  doubt 
but  this  subtle  agent  has  been  here  ?     Where  is  it  not  ? 
It  is  the  life  of  the  crystal,  the  architect  of  the  flake,  the 
fire  of  the  frost,  the  soul  of  the  sunbeam.     The  crisp  win- 
ter air  is  full  of  it. 

JOHN  BURROUGHS. 


184  DECEMBER. 

7.  ...  As  I  looked,  a  film  of  shade  kept  appearing 
and  disappearing  with  rhythmic  regularity  in  a  corner  of 
the  window,  as  if  some  one  might  be  sitting  in  a  low  rock- 
ing-chair close  by.  Presently  the  motion  ceased,  and  sud- 
denly across  the  curtain  came  the  shadow  of  a  woman. 
She  raised  in  her  arms  the  shadow  of  a  baby,  and  kissed 

it ;  then  both  disappeared,  and  I  walked  on 

The  ecstasy  of  human  love  passed  in  brief,  intangible 
panorama  before  me.  It  was  something  seen,  yet  unseen . 
airy,  yet  solid  ;  a  type,  yet  a  reality ;  fugitive,  yet  destined 

to   last   in   my  memory   while  I   live Their 

character,  their  history,  their  fate,  are  all  unknown.  But 
these  two  will  always  stand  for  me  as  disembodied  types 
of  humanity, — the  Mother  and  the  Child. 

T.  W.  HIGGINSON. 

8.  The  following  evening  Rosamond  heard  "  Lohen- 
grin "  for  the  first  time,  and  saw  the  mystic  knight  of  the 
swan.  .  .  "  Why,"  thought  Aunt  Serena,  "  can  we  not 
have  the  help  of  beautiful  music  and  the  influence  of  mas- 
ter-minds brought  within  the  reach  of  moderate  means, 
and  at  so  early  an  hour  that  neither  the  aged  and  the 
delicate,  nor  the  very  young,  need  hesitate  to  enjoy  them  ?" 
She  preferred,  indeed,  that  Rosamond  should  study  life, 
presented  to  her  gaze  in  this  way,  at  the  sensible  hour  of 
seven  or  even  half-past  six,  than  that  she  should  make  too 
many  personal  investigations  and  experiments  in  a  crowded 
ball-room.  So  the  congenial  party  enjoyed  most  charm- 
ing'evenings  in  the  pleasant  little  theatre,  where  people 
came  early  in  walking-dress,  and  went  home  temperately 
at  half-past  nine.  BLANCHE  WILLIS  HOWARD. 


DECEMBER.  185 

9.  Have,  first  of  all,  a  home !     No  matter  what  your 
career,  let  it  start  from  the  home  and  return  to  the  home. 

ROSE  CLEVELAND. 

Womanish  and  womanly  are  two  quite  different  things. 

GLADSTONE. 

I'd  rather  be  a  woman  than  act  a  queen. 

LOUISA  M.  ALCOTT. 

With  all  her  human  imperfections,  the  upright  nature 
of  the  child  kept  her  desires  climbing  towards  the  just  and 
pure  and  true,  as  flowers  struggle  to  the  light ;  and  the 
woman's  soul  was  budding  beautifully  under  the  green 
leaves  behind  the  little  thorns.  LOUSIA  M.  ALCOTT. 

All  women  should  desire  to  give  each  other  the  example 
of  a  sweet,  good  life,  more  eloquent  and  powerful  than 
any  words.  LOUISA  M.  ALCOTT. 

10.  I  think  that  you  will  all  agree  with  me  that  the  one 
great  help  of  helps  is  the  habit  of  looking  up  for  strength 
to  One  who  is  mightier  than  we  —  who  is  unmoved  among 
all  the  changes  and  upturnings  of  time,  and  who  has  prom- 
ised to  all  who  feel  the  need  of  something  firm  to  set  their 
feet  upon,  '  Ask,  and  ye  shall  receive.'     If  only  every  day 
in  our  often  too  hurried  and  worried  lives  we  would  take 
but  fifteen  minutes  for  retirement,  for  quiet  self-recollec- 
tion and  prayer,  strength  and  calmness  would  surely  come 
to  us.    Things  around  us  would  assume  their  due  propor- 
tions ;  the  trifles  and  worries  that  seem  at  the  moment  su- 
preme would  grow  less  important  in  our  eyes,  as  our  life 
gained  in  perspective,  and  we  came  to  see  more  clearly 
the  outlines  of  that  vast  and  unknown  future  which  lies 
yet  before  each  one  of  us.  MOTHERS  IN  COUNCIL. 


l86  DECEMBER. 

11.  Happiness  is  not  what  we  are  to  look  for.     Our 
place  is  to  be  true  to  the  best  we  know,  to  seek  that,  and 
do  that.     .     .     .     Let  us  do  right,  and  then  whether  hap- 
piness come  or  unhappiness,  it  is  no  very  weighty  matter. 
If  it  come,  life  will  be  sweet ;  if  it  do  not  come,  life  will  be 
bitter  not  sweet,  and  yet  to  be  borne.     .     .     .     The  well- 
being  of  our  souls  depends  only  on  what  we  are  ;  and 
nobleness  of  character  is  nothing  else  but  steady  love  of 
good,  and  steady  scorn  of  evil.     Only  to  those  who  have 
the  heart  to  say"  We  can  do  without  selfish  enjoyment; 
it  is  not  what  we  ask  or  desire,"  it  is  no  secret.     .    .     . 
Happiness  may  fly  away,  pleasures  pall  or  cease  to  be  ob- 
tainable, wealth  decay,  friends  fail  or  prove  unkind;  but 
the  power  to  serve  God  never  fails,  and  the  love  of  Him 
is  never  rejected.  FROUDE. 

12.  Though  winter  is  represented  in  the  almanac  as  an 
old  man,  facing  the  wind  and  sleet,  and  drawing  his  cloak 
about  him,  we  rather  think  of  him  as  a  merry  wood-chop- 
per, and  warm-blooded  youth,  as  blithe  as  summer.     The 
unexplored  grandeur  of  the  storm  keeps  up  the  spirits  of 
the  traveller.     It  does  not  trifle  with  us,  but  has  a  sweet 
earnestness.     In  winter  we  lead  a  more  inward  life.     Our 
hearts  are  warm  and  cheery,  like  cottages   under  drifts, 
whose   windows  and  doors  are  half  concealed,  but  from 
whose  chimneys  the  smoke  cheerfully  ascends.     The  im- 
prisoning drifts  increase  the  sense  of  comfort  which  the 
house  affords,  and  in  the  coldest  days  we  are  content  to 
sit  over  the  hearth,     .     .     .     enjoying  the  quiet  and  serene 
life  that  may  be  had  in  a  warm  corner  by  the  chimney  side. 

THOREAU. 


DECEMBER.  187 

13.  There  always  comes  some  smooth  running  to  every 
skein  before  all  is  done.  You  mustn't  try  to  see  through 
the  whole  skein  or  to  straighten  it  all  out  into  a  single 
thread  before  you  begin  to  wind ;  that  always  makes  a  - 
snarl.  There  is  always  an  end,  and  it  is  what  you  have 
got  to  take  hold  of.  MRS.  A.  D.  T.  WHITNEY. 

Build  thee  more  stately  mansions,  O  my  soul, 
As  the  swift  seasons  roll ! 
Leave  thy  low-vaulted  past ! 
Let  each  new  temple,  nobler  than  the  last, 
Shut  thee  from  heaven  with  a  dome  more  vast, 

Till  thou  at  length  art  free, 

Leaving  thine  outgrown  shell  by  life's  unresting  sea. 

HOLMES. 

14.  We  need  society,  and  we  need  solitude  also,  as  we 
need  summer  and  winter,  day  and  night,  exercise  and  rest. 
I  thank  heaven  for  a  thousand  pleasant  and  profitable  con- 
versations with  acquaintances  and  friends  ;  I  thank  heaven 
also,  and  not  less  gratefully  for  thousands  of  sweet  hours 
that  have  passed  in  solitary  thought  or  labor,  under  the 
silent  stars.  I  value  society  for  the  abundance  of  ideas 
that  it  brings  before  us,  like  carriages  in  a  frequented 
street ;  but  I  value  solitude  for  sincerity  and  peace,  and 
for  the  better  understanding  of  the  thoughts  that  are  truly 
ours.  Only  in  solitude  do  we  learn  our  inmost  nature  and 
its  needs.  PHILIP  GILBERT  HAMERTON. 

Beside  the  real  life  expands  the  ideal  life  to  those  that 
seek  it.  Droop  not,  seek  it ;  the  ideal  life  has  its  sorrows, 
but  it  never  admits  despair.  BULWER. 

Blessed  are  the  missionaries  of  cheerfulness. 

LYDIA  MARIA  CHILD. 


l88  DECEMBER. 

15.  The  path  of  a  good  woman  is  indeed  strewn  with 
flowers ;  but  they  rise  behind  her  steps,  not  before  them. 
"  Her  feet  have  touched  the  meadows,  and  left  the  daisies 
rosy."     It  is  little  to  say  of  a  woman,  that  she  only  does 
not  destroy  where  she  passes.      She  should  revive ;  the 
harebells  should  bloom,  not  stoop,  as  she  passes. 

Far  among  the  woodlands  and  the  rocks,  —  far  in  the 
darkness  of  the  terrible  streets,  —  feeble  florets  are  lying, 
with  all  their  fresh  leaves  torn,  and  their  stems  broken  — 
will  you  never  go  down  to  them,  nor  set  them  in  order,  nor 
fence  them  in  their  shuddering  from  the  fierce  wind? 

RUSKIN. 

16.  I  did  but  dream.     I  never  knew 

What  charms  our  sternest  season  wore. 
Was  never  yet  the  sky  so  blue, 

Was  never  earth  so  white  before. 
Till  now  I  never  saw  the  glow 
Of  sunset  on  yon  hills  of  snow, 
And  never  learned  the  bough's  designs 
Of  beauty  in  its  leafless  lines. 

As  thou  hast  made  thy  world  without, 
Make  thou  more  fair  my  world  within ; 

Shine  through  its  lingering  clouds  of  doubts ; 
Rebuke  its  haunting  shapes  of  sin  ; 

Fill,  brief  or  long,  my  granted  span 

Of  life  with  love  to  thee  and  man ; 

Strike  when  thou  wilt  the  hour  of  rest, 

But  let  my  last  days  be  my  best  I 

WHITTIER. 


DECEMBER.  189 

17.  Never  attempt  to  enjoy  every  picture  in  a  great 
collection,  unless  you  have  a  year  to  bestow  upon  it.    You 
may  as  well  attempt  to  enjoy  every  dish  in  a  lord  mayor's 
feast.    Both  mind  and  palate  get  confounded  by  a  great 
variety  and  rapid  succession,  even  of  delicacies.    The  mind 
can  take  in  only  a  certain  number  of  images  and  impres- 
sions distinctly  :  by  multiplying  the  number  you  render  the 
whole  confused  and  vague.     Study  the  choice  pieces,  look 
upon  none  else,  and  you  will  afterwards  find  them  hanging 

up  in  vour  memory. 

WASHINGTON  IRVING. 

18.  She  would  have  given  neither  of  the  men  another 
thought,  but  that  there  was  no  one  else  with  whom  to  do 
any  of  that  huckster  business  called  flirting  which  to  her 
had  just  harm  enough  in  it  to  make  it  interesting.     .     .     . 
I  tread  on  delicate   ground  —  ground  which  alas  !  many 
girls  tread  boldly,  scattering  much  feather-bloom  from  the 
wings  of  poor  Physche,  gathering  for  her  hoards  of  un- 
lovely memories,  and  sowing  the  seed  of  many  a  wish  that 
she  had  done  differently.     They  cannot  pass  over  such 
ground  and  escape  having  their  nature  more  or  less  vul- 
garized.    I  do  not  speak  of  anything  counted  wicked,  but 
of  gambling  with  the  precious  and  lovely  things  of  the 
deepest  human  relation.    If  a  girl  with  such  an  experience, 
marry  a  man  she  loves,  will  she  not  now  and  then  remem- 
ber  something   it    would  be   joy   to    discover    she    had 
but  dreamed  ?    .    .    .     .    Honesty  and  truth,  God's  es- 
sentials, are  perhaps  more  lacking  in  ordinary  intercourse 
between  young  men  and  women  than  anywhere  else. 

GEORGE  MACDONALD. 


190  DECEMBER. 

19.  You  can  do  all.     Now  make  the  earth  renew  its 
vigor ;  now  make  health  and  courage  come  again  into  the 
world ;    now  restore  the  reign  of  cheer ;   now  break  the 
bonds  of  vice  ;  now  bring  back  an  earthly  Paradise  !    With 
your  strong  bodies,  your  glad  hearts,  your  vigorous  minds, 
your  imperial  sway  over  the  hearts  of  one  another,  your 
persuasive  control  of  your  elders,  it  is  for  you  to  make  the 
future  what  you  will.     Oh,  make  it  the  dawn  of  that  civili- 
zation, of  that  Christianity,  when  again   "  the    morning 
stars  shall  sing  together."  A.  H.   R. 

20.  So  Guenn  had  had  no  need  of  finery.     Now  she 
began  to  thirst  after  it.     Monsieur  was  always  talking  of 
color.     Monsieur  was  always  talking  of  form.     It  seemed 
to  her  evident  that  she  could  more  worthily  help  along  the 
great  work,  if  she  had  a  new  gown  with  some  color  and 
some  form,  and  some  bright  ribbons  beside.     One  day 
Hamor  found  her  earnestly  scrutinizing  herself  in  a  small 
mirror  which  hung  in  the  corner  of  the  atelier.    He  smiled 
and  thought,  "  All  women  are  alike,"  —  a  favorite  conclu- 
sion of  youngish  men  who  pride  themselves  upon  their 
knowledge  of  human  nature  ;  but  his  theories  were  put  to 
rout  and  confusion  when  she  unabashed  smiled   sweetly 
at  him,  and,  continuing  her  investigations,  remarked  :  "  I 
am  trying  to  find  out  what  pleases  you  in  my  face,  mon- 
sieur, I  wish  I  knew.    You  see  —  "  with  her  merriest  laugh 
—  "  to  me  it  looks  so  very  much  like  Guenn  Rodellec !  " 
staring  solemnly  into  her  own  great  blue  eyes,  and  adjust- 
ing her  coiffe  without  a  sign  of  coquetry  or  embarrassment. 

BLANCHE  WILLIS  HOWARD. 


DECEMBER.  1 9 l 

21.  Whatever  path  a  young  man  (or  woman)  chooses 
in  the  intellectual  world,  whatever  severity  of  study  he  may 
impose  upon  himself  in  the  ambition  to  master  it,  two  vol. 
umes  must  always  be  pouring  their    influence    into    his 
nature,  the  New  Testament  and  the  volume  of  records  of 
his  native  land.    Religion  and  patriotism  must  stream  into 
every  fibre  of  his  brain,  into  every  duct  of  his  blood. 

T.  STARR  KING. 

Human  happiness  hath  no  perfect  security  but  freedom  ; 
freedom  none  but  virtue  ;  virtue  none  but  knowledge  ;  and 
neither  freedom  nor  virtue  nor  knowledge  has  any  vigor 
or  immortal  hope  except  in  the  principles  of  the  Christian 
faith,  and  the  sanctions  of  the  Christian  religion. 

JOSIAH  QUINCY. 

22.  Those  visions  of  old  prophecy  are  working  their 
accomplishment  in  every  home.     He  who  sits  upon  the 
white  horse  goes  forth  conquering  and  to  conquer.     Not 
in  the  fashion  which  John  of  Patmos  thought  of,  very  likely. 
But  in  God's  fashion,  a  thousand  times  more  grand,  for 
victories  a  thousand  times  more  sure.      He   overthrows 
death,  He  conquers  ignorance  and  sin,  crime  is  more  hated, 
truth  is  more  honored.     Light  overpowers  darkness,  good 
conquers  evil.     And  if  this  is  true  here,  it  is  only  because 
it  is  true  everywhere.     Those  Pilgrim  Fathers  were  not 
little  men,  nor  mean,  nor  bad.     They  did  the  largest  thing 
done  in  their  time,  and  it  showed  faith  most  vividly.     But 
everywhere,  as  time  passes,  the  eternal  law  is  that  the 
power  which  works  for  Righteousness  succeeds, —which 
is  to  say  that  God  reigns,  or  that  His  Kingdom  comes. 

EDWARD  EVERETT  HALE. 


IQ2  DECEMBER. 

23.  "  I  like  that  word '  kindness,'  "  said  Mrs.  Wythe,  "  for 
I  never  hear  it  without  remembering  its  derivation.     To  be 
kind  is  only  another  form  of  being  human  —  being  like  our 
kind,  or  acting  as  though  we  ever  felt  the  tie  that  binds  us 
to  our  kind.     How  much  of  our  ill-manners  arises  from 
forgetfulness  that  others  are   children  of  the   same   All 
Father!  MOTHERS  IN  COUNCIL. 

Manners  may  be  learned  at  dancing-schools  and  in 
society,  but  true  politeness  grows  in  the  home  circle  only. 
If  missed  there,  it  is  seldom  found  elsewhere. 

MOTHERS  IN  COUNCIL. 

24.  Just  to  let  thy  Father  do  what  he  will ; 
Just  to  know  that  he  is  true,  and  be  still  ; 
Just  to  follow  hour  by  hour  as  he  leadeth ; 
Just  to  draw  the  moment's  power  as  it  needeth  ; 

Just  to  trust  him,  this  is  all ! 

Then  the  day  will  surely  be 
Peaceful,  whatsoe'er  befall, 

Bright  and  blessed,  calm  and  free. 

Just  to  leave  in  his  dear  hand  little  things, 
All  we  cannot  understand,  all  that  stings  ; 
Just  to  let  him  take  the  care  sorely  pressing, 
Finding  all  we  let  him  bear  changed  to  blessing, 
This  is  all !  and  yet  the  way 

Marked  by  Him  who  loves  the  best : 
Secret  of  a  happy  day, 
Secret  of  his  promised  rest. 

FRANCES  R.  HAVERGAL. 


DECEMBER.  193 

25.  It  is  good  to  be  children  sometimes,  and  never  bet- 
ter than  at  Christmas,  when  its   mighty  Founder  was  a 
child  Himself.  DICKENS. 

"  Why  do  they  not  give  such  presents  every  day  ? "  said 
Clara. 

"  O  child,"  I  said,  "  it  is  only  for  thirty-six  hours  of  the 
three  hundred  and  sixty-five  days,  that  all  people  remem- 
ber that  they  are  all  brothers  and  sisters,  and  those  are  the 
hours  that  we  call,  therefore,  Christmas  Eve  and  Christ- 
mas Day." 

"  And  when  they  always  remember  it,"  said  Bertha,  "  it 
will  be  Christmas  all  the  time !" 

EDWARD  EVERETT  HALE. 

26.  We  mustn't  be  in  a  hurry  to  fix  and  choose  our  own 
lot;  we  must  wait  to  be  guided.     We  are  led  on,  like  the 
little  children,  by  a  way  that  we  know  not.     It  is  a  vain 
thought  to  flee  from  the  work  that  God  appoints  us,  for 
the  sake  of  finding  a  greater  blessing  to  our  own  souls  ;  as 
if  we  could  choose  for  ourselves  where  we  shall  find  the 
fulness  of  the  Divine  Presence,  instead  of  seeking  it  where 
alone  it  is  to  be  found,  in  loving  obedience. 

GEORGE  ELIOT. 

The  greatest  lesson  that  we  have  to  learn  in  our  mental 
life,  is  to  value  quality  of  work  more  and  quantity  less. 
Everybody  knows  how  much  more  exhilaration  and  less 
fatigue  is  experienced  from  a  brisk  walk,  than  from  stand- 
ing listlessly  around  for  double  the  length  of  time  ;  and  it 
is  just  so  with  mental  effort.  We  want  neither  feverish, 
excited,  nor  lazy  work  ;  but  earnest,  vigorous  effort,  ceas- 
ing when  the  brain  is  weary  or  the  object  is  accomplished. 

EDNA  D.  CHENEY. 


194  DECEMBER. 

27.  All  persons  who  have  spent  any  considerable  time 
in  the  fair  city  of  Berlin,  have  heard  much  of  Queen 
Louisa,  and  those  among  them  who  have  thought  on  what 
they  have  heard,  must  have  pondered  on  the  causes  which 
have  given  such  enduring  power  and  sweetness  to  the 
memory  of  one  so  long  departed  from  her  home  on  earth. 
Why  is  that  name  so  cherished  with  a  living,  animating, 
energizing  love  ? 

I  believe  that  the  warm  affection  which  has  so  long 
survived  its  object,  is  due  not  so  much  to  the  Queen's  tal- 
ents, to  her  brave  spirit  and  high  aspirations,  as  to  the  fact, 
that  with  these  gifts  and  these  exalted  aims,  she  still  pre- 
served a  tender,  sympathizing  heart  —  was  the  mother  of 
the  family,  and  the  mother  of  the  land. 

ELIZABETH  H.  HUDSON. 
28.     If  I  had  known  in  the  morning 
How  wearily  all  the  day 
The  words  unkind 
Would  trouble  my  mind, 
I  said  when  I  went  away, 
I  had  been  more  careful,  darling, 
Nor  given  you  needless  pain ; 
But  we  vex  "  our  own  " 
With  look  and  tone 
We  may  never  take  back  again. 

AUSTRALIAN  STARR. 

Brothers  are  indeed  terrible  critics  of  their  sisters,  and 
so  far,  irritating  creatures.  But  otherwise,  as  we  all  know, 
they  are  the  very  joy  and  pride  of  our  lives. 

FRANCES  POWER  COBBE. 


DECEMBER.  195 

29.  Two  things  should  be  included  in  the  education  of 
every  girl :    she   should  be  taught   practically  the   value 
and  use  of  money,  and  she  should  be  trained  to  do  some 
sort  of  work  by  which  she  can  earn  a  livelihood,  if  need 
be.     .     .     .     Any  girl,  with  a  proper  personal  pride  and 
individuality  will  learn  to  like  the  independence  which  a 
system   of   allowance  gives.     To  have  to  ask  for  every 
article  of  dress  or  luxury  is  somewhat  galling  to  young 
people,  and  when  it  is  in  a  home  where  strict  economy 
must  be  practical,  it  is  sometimes  a  source  of  great  pain. 

A  girl  should  learn  some  one  thing  thoroughly,  by 
which  she  may  support  herself,  if  necessary.  When  a 
woman  knows  she  is  competent  to  earn  a  living,  it  wrill  not 
hurt  her  if  she  does  not  need  to  use  her  ability.  If  mis- 
fortune threatens,  the  knowledge  that  she  is  not  helpless 
saves  many  an  hour  of  heart-sickening  despondency,  and, 
if  misfortune  does  come,  she  is  equipped  to  meet  it. 

S.  B.  H.—  Century. 

30.  "  Work  while  you  have  light,"  especially  while  you 
have  the  light  of  morning.     The  happiness  of  your  life, 
and  its  power,  and  its  part  and  rank  in  earth  or  in  heaven, 
depend  on  the  way  you  pass  your  days  now.     They  are  not 
to  be  sad  days  ;  far  from  that,  the  first  duty  of  young  peo- 
ple is  to  be  delighted  and  delightful ;   but  they  are  to  be 
in  the  deepest  sense  solemn  days.     Now,  therefore,  see 
that  no  day  passes  in  which  you  do  not  make  yourself  a 
somewhat  better  creature.  RUSKIN. 

Health  is  a  means  to  an  end.  It  is  an  investment  for 
the  future.  That  end  is  worthy  work  and  noble  living. 

MARY  A.  LIVERMORE. 


196  DECEMBER. 

31.     My  fairest  child,  I  have  no  song  to  give  you ; 

No  lark  could  pipe  to  skies  so  dull  and  gray ; 
Yet,  ere  we  part,  one  lesson  I  can  leave  with  you 
For  every  day. 

Be  good,  sweet  maid,  and  let  who  will  be  clever  ; 
Do  noble  things,  not  dream  them,  all  day  long : 
And  so  make  life,  death,  and  that  vast  forever 
One  grand,  sweet  song. 

CHARLES  KINGSLEY. 

I  shall  always  be  very  glad  to  be  asked  on  your  birth- 
day, and  to  come  if  you  will  let  me,  and  to  send  my  love 
to  you,  and  to  wish  that  you  may  live  to  be  very  old  and 
very  happy,  which  I  do  now  with  all  my  heart. 

DICKENS. 

There,  —  my  blessmg  with  you  ! 
And  these  few  precepts  in  thy  memory. 
See  thou  character :  —  SHAKESPEARE. 


RETURN  TO  the  circulation  desk  of  any 
University  of  California  Library 
or  to  the 

NORTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 
Bldg.  400,  Richmond  Field  Station 
University  of  California 
Richmond,  CA  94804-4698 

ALL  BOOKS  MAY  BE  RECALLED  AFTER  7  DAYS 
2-month  loans  may  be  renewed  by  calling 

(510)642-6753 
1-year  loans  may  be  recharged  by  bringing  books 

to  NRLF 
Renewals  and  recharges  may  be  made  4  days 

prior  to  due  date 

DUE  AS  STAMPED  BELOW 


JAN  19  1994 


' B  22552 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


